The Best of Intentions
by TheThirdWarden
Summary: Blood dripped onto the bullhead floor. Ruby Rose stared at her burned hands, wondering how it all went wrong. How they fell so far. First in the Clean Slate series. Join teams RWBY, JNPR, and SLTE as they attempt to unravel the intentions of their headmaster, the White Fang attacks, and their own pasts all while acclimating to a new school. Darker Remnant. Character Death.
1. The First Step

**Disclaimer and other warnings: Let's get this out of the way first, I in no way own anything related to RWBY, that belongs to Rooster Teeth. I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

 **NOTE: This story is currently undergoing extensive rewrites.**

* * *

"I'll...keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look among you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step. It is up to you to earn experience."

Ruby Rose studied the headmaster as he sauntered off the stage. She did not clap or cheer as many of her fellow prospects did; no, she was entirely focused on the white haired man. The easy way he carried himself, the ever present cane, the complete lack of emotion in his eyes. If she was honest he scared her.  
She had first noticed his lack of emotion during her interrogation in Vale. Headmaster Ozpin had been nothing but kind and understanding, yet the encounter had still unnerved Ruby. He had smiled and gestured and, to anyone watching, appeared the epitome of the gentle headmaster. None of it had reached his eyes.  
Though, Ruby was not too bothered by it; she had accepted his invitation to Beacon after all. What did she care if the headmaster was a bit mysterious? She was at the top combat school in the kingdom if not the world. Whatever oddities the man possessed, he ran a fine combat school.  
A combat school she was now allowed to wander, with Ozpin's speech over all of the prospects were free until sun down. Ruby was out of the chamber the second Goodwitch said, "dismissed."

Her first stop was the locker room, even a combat academy had to have some rules on weapons. Usually, Ruby was nigh inseparable from her "sweetheart" but after the accident with the white haired banshee, she was willing to reconsider. Nearly blowing herself and another student off the cliff face had not been the best way to arrive at the academy. Accidentally shooting another student with a 22mm dust round or having a massive blade deploy in an enclosed area would not go any better. To her chagrin though, Ruby didn't know which locker was hers; she had only skimmed the orientation document preloaded on their scrolls. Was it 636 or 366? 363? With a huff at having to stand still, she pulled the folded PDA from her belt. The collapsible tablet was another perk of being a Beacon student; anyone accepted who either didn't have one or did not have the necessary model was given one free of charge. A quick click and Ruby was headed for locker 343.

Unlocking it, she was surprised to find all of her ammunition already stacked in the bottom section. A change of clothes had been folded over the two dozen magazines. Beacon's staff worked fast. Beacon's staff had gone through her stuff. Ruby ignored that thought. Soon Crescent Rose and her combat boots joined the high caliber magazines, pressed into the bonding layer at the back of the locker. After a second of thought she stashed her dress and snatched up the other set of clothes.

 _It'll probably be a while before anyone else decides to come in here_ , she shrugged and went on into the shower. At Signal the locker rooms had been divided between girls and boys, Ruby thought Beacon would be the same. Why wouldn't it be? The lack of a gender designating sign slipped her mind.

The scythe wielder learned Beacon's locker room was in fact coed when she exited the shower. In her haste to beat the crowd Ruby had not bothered to grab a towel, she guessed they were in the supply closet at the far end of the room. She managed to make it to the closet, retrieve a towel, and began drying herself before noticing the two people standing at their lockers. One was a tall blonde boy who's impression of a tomato would have been funny if it wasn't her he was freaking out about. It was Jaune, one of the two spectators to her earlier explosion. The other was a girl in sleek black armor, an orange reflective visor concealed her face. A squeak and shower of rose petals, and Ruby was safely back in the showers.

"Blondie's gone if you want to come out. He might have run away faster than you did" Even with the tip, and her clothes actually on, Ruby only peaked her head out the door. Only an orange visor stared back.

"Uh, thanks." The visor showed no emotion. "Didn't know this wasn't just the girl's locker room."

"Ah, so you just prance around for the girls?" Ruby squeaked.

"No, I-ah...I didn't think anyone would come into...the public locker room." The black clad girl laughed, the chuckles muffled by her helmet.

"Whatever you say Red," her tone suggested she didn't really believe the still slightly blushing girl, "try to remember these are coed next time."

Ruby nodded and ran a hand through her damp hair, her heart rate had slowed and she had regained her natural pallor for the most part. The visor walked away, glancing back one last time from the doorway.

"Oh yea and Red," Ruby looked up, "thanks for the show."

Ruby sputtered and covered her face to raucous laughter. Was it too early to grab a cot and just hide?

* * *

It was a with a blank page in front of her and a pen head clamped in her teeth that Yang found her that night.

"Whatcha doing?" Bright silver eyes snapped to her. Ruby removed the pen from her mouth, tapping it against the paper out of habit.

"Writing back to Signal or home or I don't know." Ruby had originally sat down an hour ago to write back to anyone at Signal, unlike Yang she didn't get to drag her friends to Beacon with her. After a few moments of thought Ruby had decided to write home instead, unlike Yang she didn't really have any close friends. She had all the people she needed with Yang and Qrow and Dad, why waste time she could be training or caring for Crescent Rose by talking to her peers? Unless they had a very unique weapon or were clearly better than her, Ruby only socialized with them when forced. She had once completed a group project without actually talking to her partner, they received the highest grade in the class.

"Making progress?" The sisters grinned at each other. It was nice to be around a familiar face again.

"Not at all." Yang laid down on her cot beside Ruby. Ruby sprawled out on her own. "Do you think tomorrow will be better?"

"Depends," Yang's lilac eyes glittered in the dim light, "do you plan to blow up the shrieker again or are you going for more oblivious peep shows?" Even with her face covered, Yang could see Ruby's blush. Her ears had gone bright red, _why did I tell her about that?_

"Yang!" The aforementioned sister just giggled at the whine and settled into sleep. Ruby soon joined her, paper forgotten and the pen left to roll away.

Blearily Ruby Rose sat up from her cot. One second she was blinking, staring at the cavernous room in confusion, then she was sprinting to the locker room. More than a few people shot her dirty looks as she blitzed past, stomped toes and checked shoulders marking her path through the crowd. She wasted no time opening her locker and stripping out of her night clothes.

Standing in her underwear, Ruby suddenly decided to look around the room. _Not again_. Heat flooded her cheeks as four, fully armored students came into view; standing along the back wall, they had seen everything. The fact that they all wore reflective visors did not help, neither did the fact that the breast plates of their armor clearly showed only two of them were girls. Embarrassed at her lack of clothing, Ruby's hands immediately moved to cover herself; which meant she dropped her battle dress and gave a clearer view of herself.

"Nice-" the shorter of the two males began to call to her, but a swift smack to the back of his helmet silenced him.

"I-I..ah..didn't see you all." One of the girl's helmet cocked to the side at her stuttering, almost as if she was amused. _That's the girl from yesterday_. That same girl then snapped her fingers at the boys, who obediently turned around. Ruby picked up her dress.

"Hey Red. No problem, though you'll probably want to get used to changing with other people around." Her voice was muffled by the helmet, she was kind enough to leave out that she had warned Ruby of this exact thing the day before. Ruby wondered why the quartet all wore the same armor. Were they a team? Could they just pick teams?

"Yea...I just didn't expect anyone else to be here. Again." A muffled exclamation followed her admission, and the shorter boy was smacked again. There wasn't any real force behind it, even if she couldn't hear it the swaying of the fours' shoulders showed they were laughing. "Uh, you guys can turn around now." The boys glanced at the apparent lead girl before turning fully.

"Interesting choice." A deep rumble came from the taller boy, he stood a good half foot above his teammates. Ruby felt four pairs of eyes roving over her, appraising her. It was a bit disturbing. "See you on the field."

It was a confused and still slightly pink Ruby that Yang found in the middle of the locker room. She shrugged it off and moved past her sister to collect her own gear. Whatever it was, she knew it couldn't have been worse than almost blowing up the Schnee heiress.

"Ready little sis?" Ruby jumped at her sister's hands clamping down on her shoulders.

"Uh, yea. Of course. Any idea what the challenge is?" Her voice wavered slightly but Ruby was smiling ear to ear. Yang decided it was best not to ask what had happened in her absence; between nearly launching the Schnee heiress off a cliff, walking out of the shower in front of Jaune, and being teased by a visored weirdo, Yang had heard enough freaky encounters for the week.

"Nope." With that both of the sisters marched out the door and onto the Cliff path, Jaune waved as they passed. Well, he waved at Yang and struggled not to gape at Ruby. Likewise, she blushed and refused to meet his eyes. Yang laughed all the way to the cliff.

For a rare moment the sisters were silent as they waited for the rest of the prospective students to line up on the designated plaques. After nearly twenty minutes, Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch sauntered to the middle of the line.

"Yesterday, I urged all of you to take the first step in applying yourselves and bettering the future. What you see before you is that first step." Ozpin jabbed his cane at one of the seventy silver plates. "Your challenge, should you accept it, is quite simple." He paused to sip from his coffee, it was freezing at the top of the cliff. His gaze swept the prospective students before he continued.  
"At the far northern end of the Emerald Forest there is an abandoned temple. Twenty relics lie within it. You all will pair up, advance to the temple, retrieve a relic, and return to the cliff top within forty eight hours." Again he met each of the assemblies eyes. "There are many dangers waiting for you, and though the staff will observe your progress they will not interfere in the test. Do not hesitate to destroy any obstacle in your path or you will most certainly die."  
A shudder seemed to run through the line of prospective Huntsmen as Ozpin extended his hand to the launch pads, inviting them to accept his challenge. Fear tickled the edge of Ruby's mind as she looked down the line, only fifty of the plates were manned. Only forty of them would leave the forest as students. There was a chance fewer would escape at all. Ozpin did not seem concerned in the slightest.

"Oh, I forgot to mention. The first person you make eye contact with upon landing will be your partner for the next four years." A chorus of protest erupted at the Headmaster, he merely sipped his coffee. Ruby craned her neck as one boy's voice boomed over the crowd.

"Only direct eye contact results in a pair, correct?" Ozpin and Ruby stared at the oddly boy. The other three armored students stood with him.

"Only direct eye contact." The headmaster sipped his coffee. The ghost of a smirk tugged at his lips.

"Perfect." Several of the students began shouting as the combat armored prospects locked their visors, reflective plates firmly in place. Ruby saw Ozpin grinning at the tactic. Really, Ruby was jealous of the quartet. They were effectively exempt from the random selection. _Who are they?_  
Silence fell over the line as the first plate launched, no one had stepped onto it. The second was not as empty. Ruby sighed at the slow progression, she was almost at the opposite end.

"So...ah, are you like dropping us off in the forest?" Jaune asked, oblivious to the explosive springboard he was standing on and the launches going on to his left.

"No, you will be falling." How Ozpin managed to answer with a straight face, Ruby would never know. A muffled chuckle brought Ruby's attention back to the armored boy. Jaune continued his questioning.

"Did you pass out parachutes earlier or something?" The black armored students all seemed to freeze under their armor. Ruby giggled at the lead boy rapidly patting his back, or more accurately the smooth plate that an emergency shoot should have been locked too. It seemed they weren't as prepared as they thought.

"No, you are responsible for your own landing strategy." Ozpin's steady explanation snapped the girl back to the cliffs. she turned just in time to see Yang whip on her aviators and soar into the unknown. Ruby steeled herself, a click thrummed up from the plate, and she was off.

A red rocket sailing above the Emerald Forest.


	2. Rocks, Berries, and Sheets

**Disclaimer: I own nothing involved with RWBY, that belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

While flying above a forest filled with Grimm was enjoyable, Ruby was having a bit of an issue. She had completely lost track of her sister, her sniper scythe was fine for slowing down to land or vaguely changing direction way up in the air but it was no match for Yang's own flying speed. As she fired down to slow herself before riding her scythe down a tree, Ruby couldn't help but let a little fear creep in. Without Yang the only people she knew to try and pair up with were the armored girl, the scary white haired banshee, and Jaune. None of those were particularly appealing options. Nevertheless, Ruby set off into the forest; Yang had been launched first and had to fly further to safely land, heading towards the temple was her best bet. All she had to do was avoid eye contact with the fifty other prospects until she got there. How hard could it be to go ten miles without interacting with another person?

Ancient tree trunks blurred past as Ruby rushed North towards the temple, Yang may have been the faster flyer but Ruby was unmatched on the ground. If nothing got in her way she supposed she could reach the temple within a half hour. A certain Schnee heiress had other plans.

One second Ruby was side stepping a tree, the next she was staring straight up. Verdant leaves and azure sky shone above her, the world spun slightly. _My head_ , was all she could think; it felt like she had hit a stone wall. Glancing a bit behind her, Ruby found what she had in fact hit. Sapphire eyes blazed into hers, a purple splotch on the girl's forehead showing exactly where they had met. Then the girl paled, though she was already deathly white, and sneered at the ground. That was the banshee. She was partners with the banshee.

"You dolt," the girl's white hair whipped around her as she stood, "you couldn't watch where you were going, that was too much to ask?" Ruby couldn't help but think the banshee was cute when she was angry. _Wait, what?_

"Well?" Ruby shook her head to clear it. The same light, almost fluttering, feeling had settled in her chest as yesterday, thankfully there was no powdered dust for her to accidentally detonate this time.

"I-uh-Yang...I was looking for my sister, Yang. I'm Ruby by the way." The blued eyed girl glared at her again.

"Just perfect, a speed demon and a pyromaniac. Well, get up you idiot, we need to get to the temple." Ruby hurried to her feet as the girl began marching South.

"Uh, the temple's the other way." Ruby winced as the girl whirled around on her.

"And how do you know that?" If she didn't constantly yell, Ruby may have noticed her partner had a beautiful voice. As it was she struggled not to bolt, yelling and strangers and suddenly being stuck with a yelling stranger were all usually things that ended with Ruby sprinting to Yang. Well, sprinting to Yang or drawing Crescent Rose, though she doubted threatening the combat skirt clad girl with a scythe would help them work together.

"I could see it when Ozpin launched us, plus I know how to navigate. My uncle taught me." Ruby sighed as the girl's shoulders slumped a bit, she wasn't going to yell again. Maybe they could start over, attempt to get on good terms with each other. The girl just marched right past her and kept going, _so much for that_. Sullen and silent, Ruby followed her nameless partner deeper into the woods. At least they were headed the right way.

* * *

"So kit-cat, got a name?" Yang looked at the cat eared girl beside out of the corner of her eye, she was grinning. Blake mentally cursed herself for not securing her ribbon better, of course the thing would decide to fly off when all of her future classmates were prowling around. The only consolation was that her apparent partner hadn't said anything truly derogatory, kit-cat was annoying but harmless.

"Blake, you?" Yang bobbed her head, that was a Valish name. There weren't to many faunus native to Vale, the majority coming from Vacuo or Menagerie.

"Yang Xiao Long, brawler and champion bar fighter." Both of them grinned. A comfortable silence settled over them as they neared the Temple clearing. It had taken them less than an hour to find and it couldn't have been more than a three hour walk back to the cliffs. What was the catch, why had the headmaster given them two days? They hadn't even seen many Grimm, three young Ursas being the most resistance they had faced. Dread hovered over Yang, what was the game?

"You were looking for your sister right?" Blake snapped her out of her worries. Yang glanced at her partner, the cat faunus gaze was glued to the sky.

"Yeah, skinny kid, red cloak, huge scythe." Yang scanned the sky, only finding a giant Nevermore.

"I think I found her." Yang looked at the Nevermore again, a red and white spot could just be seen over its shoulder. Ruby and her partner had ridden a Nevermore into the clearing. Yang's eyebrows knit together as the colossal bird released a volley of knife like feathers. If Ruby was on its back, what was it trying to hit? Four black shapes burst from the tree line, blindly firing at the sky as statue sized feathers sank into the ground around them. Ah, the quartet of oddly armored prospects had arrived. Yang wondered by three of them had military style rifles rather than custom weapons. A quick glance back to her sister cleared her head.

"How does Ruby manage to make everything...Alright, let's get-" A girlish wail cut off the blonde. Across the clearing a different, male, blonde and Pyrrha Nikos, four time champion of the Sanctum Academy tournament, darted out of the trees. A Deathstalker hard on their heels. "How? What is-"

"Woohoo!" Yang and Blake whipped around, weapons drawn on the Ursa that loomed over them, ready to bring its paws down and crush them. _Thunk_ , pink smoke poured from the poor creature's mask, masking the black sludge that flowed from its mouth and eyes. It toppled over, revealing a manically grinning Valkyrie and a panting Vacan boy. Nora and Ren, Yang hadn't known they had come from Signal too. Really, she had expected Ren to go back to Vacou and attend Shade, yet here they both were.

"Nora...lets never...do that again." The orange haired psycho just laughed and clapped him on the back. The thin boy was almost thrown to the ground by the tap, Yang knew just how strong Nora was. She was the only girl at Signal who could bench more than her. She was also the only person at Signal who was more hyperactive than her sister, a fact that became apparent as she noticed Yang and immediately began chattering. Neither the blonde or her partner could understand more than a dozen of the rapid words, there was something about a King Taiju and the Ursa and sloths.

"Hey, Yang." Ren silenced his partner with a tap. "I thought you would pair up with Ruby." At that, Yang whipped around again and scoured the sky for the Nevermore. Blake pointed out where it was, still following and firing on the four black clad prospects. Ruby was still clinging to its back.

"Is your sister riding a-" Ren had finally looked up, having caught his breathe from the insane ride.

"Yep." Yang was exasperated, Ruby really needed to stop getting herself in these situations.

"Is the dot sliding down her part-" Even Nora was entranced at the sight. Really, she wished she had come up with that idea, Ursa were so boring. They could only go on the ground afterall.

"Yep." Yang shook her head.

"She's going to fall." Blake said matter of factly.

"Yep."

* * *

"I told you this was terrible idea," the girl's words were nearly lost to the wind. Ruby scrabbled down, closer to her partner.

"Just take my hand, we need to jump." The girl paled again, how she managed to get lighter Ruby didn't know. Maybe it was her semblance, like winter camouflage.

"What?!" while her volume, and how much bigger her eyes got, was impressive it did not change the fact the Nevermore was beginning to notice its passengers; Ruby would take jumping and controlling her descent over being dumped off of the Grimm.

"Grab my hand and jump, the temple is below us." Ruby moved closer again, maintaining her grip on the thick feathers. Her partner on the other hand, shrank away from her intent not to hop off a giant bird hundreds of feet in the air. The Nevermore decided that was the opportune moment to launch a few feathers at the squad trying to hide in the ruins, which bucked the Schnee girl right off its back and into the open air. Ruby didn't hesitate to launch herself off and into the panicking girl. "Hold on."

Deploying Crescent Rose, Ruby fired half a dozen shots to slow them to a reasonable speed. The ground was still rushing up far faster than she would like but she had a limited amount of ammunition. They were falling below terminal velocity at least, well below Ruby's terminal velocity; her semblance let her take a little more blunt force trauma than most. Petals rained as she activated said semblance and rolled over the ground to the tree line. Her enhanced speed and reaction time allowed her to properly time the rolls to dissipate her momentum enough that her body could take the force. Ruby was perfectly fine, if a bit windswept, as she popped up in a half circle of faces. Her partner did not fare as well, she had failed to regain any of her meager coloring and the edges of her face had gone a bit green. Ruby grinned guiltily down at her, she may have forgotten how nauseating being dragged along by her semblance was for most people. There was no time for rest or proper greetings as a razor sharp feather embedded itself in the ground in front of Ruby. The Nevermore had finally noticed the easier targets. They scattered as a dozen more projectiles shredded the trees behind them.

In her haste however, Ruby did not notice there was also a Deathstalker skittering around the clearing. This misstep led to Jaune bowling over her, knocking both of them down as a pincer swiped where they had been. A second swipe sent the knight into Pyhrra, leaving Ruby alone on the ground. She couldn't block the golden stinger, it was already halfway to her heart. She closed her eyes. A burst of cold air made her shiver.

"You, saved me?" The heiress stood above her, rapier raised to the ice encased stinger.

"You're an annoying, hyperactive dolt who doesn't seem to plan anything you do at all, but you got us here and kept me from falling to my death." The white haired girl offered her hand. "If you can start thinking before throwing yourself in a random direction, I suppose I could be a bit nicer."

"Can do." Ruby took her hand and hopped to her feet. The girl actually smiled at her. The fluttering returned.

"My names Weiss by the way, Weiss Schnee."

"Nice to meet you," The ice wall creaked as the Deathstalker yanked on its tail, "grab an idol and run?"

"See, there's a plan." The duo sprinted for the temple as the Death stalker yanked back its tail, the ice fractured. They dove into the half circle of relic pedestals just as the Deathstalker freed itself, Ruby snatched up the nearest one. Shotgun shells and bright pink grenades knocked the creature back as Yang and Nora joined them. Ren and Blake joined seconds later, vaulting around the stunned Grimm to collect their idols. The rest of the prospects in the clearing were driven into the ruin by the now diving Nevermore, its claws dug foot deep furrows in the dirt.

All twelve of the students were trapped in the half circle as the Nevermore dipped to make another pass and the Deathstalker skittered around the edge of the ruin, looking for an opening.

"Schnee, glyph." the tallest armored boy called suddenly, a blue bladed katana glowed in his hand. Despite glaring over her shoulder at the stranger, Weiss drove her rapier into the ground and channeled as much energy as she dared into it. A teal snowflake glyph spread under foot, the boy stabbed his dust blade into the stone. A shimmering dome of ice groaned into existence. All eyes were on the quartet as the temperature dropped several dozen degrees.

"That'll keep them out for a few a bit." the boy seemed to mutter more to himself than the assembled prospects. Ruby shivered as she reloaded, the ice shrieked as the Nevermore's feathers split against it. They had a few minutes tops.

"Great, just wonderful. The gang's all here to die together." Yang's smile did not change in the slightest.

"You are entirely too open to that possibility." The shorter armored boy sighed as the entire shelter shook. The Deathstalker had joined in the assault.

"We could run." Ren grimaced at his remaining ammunition. Running was about all they could do. Ruby wasn't much better off, she had expended too many rounds getting down from the Nevermore. A dozen rounds were all she had for the rest of the initiation.

"I could get behind that." Jaune panted, still recovering from his sprint.

"The Nevermore would ride us down within the hour." All eyes briefly went to the second armored girl, Ruby hadn't known she could talk.

"We can't fight both of them, not in an open field." The modern samurai sheathed his sword. "Nevermore'll rain hell if we focus on the Deathstalker. Deathstalker'll overrun us if we focus on the Nevermore." His gloves scratched against his helmet as if he could run his fingers through his hair. The ice sphere cracked, a shining seam down the far was running short. _Think Rose, there are twelve of you_. Ruby bounced as she realized the solution.

"I have an idea," Yang, Blake, Weiss, Pyhrra, Jaune, Ren, and Nora all nodded in advance, they were up for anything as long as it meant not dying in an ice bubble. "Will you all help?" Four visors met each other before they all nodded at the red caped girl. They didn't have much choice but to listen to the petite scythe wielder. "Alright, you all distract the Nevermore. Everybody else, get the Deathstalker."

The wall was reduced to glittering shards as eight huntsmen-in-training fired their assorted weapons. Ruby launched herself in the air and fired twice at the Deathstalker, the rounds ricocheting off the thick plating of the overgrown scorpion. To her surprise she did not begin falling back to the ground, a white glyph glowed beneath her braced feet. She gave Weiss a thumbs up before firing again, Yang and Blake joining in the distraction as Jaune rallied the others to rush the Grimm.

Stormflower hummed as Nora launched Ren above the rushing Grimm, his rounds drew its attention as Nora fired off a grenade to weaken its stinger. Jaune and Pyrrha kept the claws back with their shields, easily weaving in and out of the pincers' jabs. Flames rolled over the Deathstalker's carapace with each of Yang's punches, Blake kept the tail away from their closer allies by batting it with her cleaver. A small crack was weathered into the face of the Grimm as the combined assault overwhelmed it. The Deathstalker hissed and tried to back away, a jut of ice kept it from escaping. Yang slammed both fists down on the scorpion, several of its eyes popped from the heat.

"Move," Jaune and the others immediately fell back from the dazed Grimm at Ruby's call, "Blake, swing me." The cat faunus did not hesitate to launch her kama towards the elevated girl, the elastic ribbon connecting it to her wrist stretched taut.

Ruby grabbed onto the bladed pistol, her aura keeping it from splitting her palm. Blake swung her down from the platform, allowing her to gain even more momentum as she activated her semblance and neared Yang. Blake released her and the brawler took her sister's hand. A spin and Yang was throwing her to Weiss. Ruby flipped in midair, aligning her feet with the black glyph at the end of her partner's rapier. Her body tingled with pent up energy as Weiss focused to shift the enhanced time dilation glyph to a repulsion glyph.

"Don't miss," was her only advice before releasing Ruby.

With a cry she switched Crescent Rose to its alternate bladed form, the blade curving up like a halberd, and drove it into the cracked face of the Deathstalker. In its overheated and beaten down state it had no chance to move or plunge its stinger through the student. The beast jerked twice before going still, viscous black sludge seeping from the seams of its armor. One down, one to go. Ruby stayed back a bit as the others rushed to help the armored four, the lunge had taken a lot of of her. Still, she turned to watch the fight.

To most it would have looked like the soldiers were struggling and if she had still been fighting the Deathstalker, Ruby would have thought the same. Watching the others rush to the quartet's aid however, she could see they were holding back. Sure, they were fighting hard but seemed too slow. It was like they were exhausted or overthinking all their moves. Looking closely she saw only the sword wielder had a custom weapon, the others held mass produced rifles with halberd heads welded to the ends. There was something wrong with the way they fought to, their moves fit a bit too well together; they moved in well worn patterns unlike the impromptu formations Ruby and her new friends had fallen into.

 _Can you trust them? Wait, where did that come from?_ Ruby shook away the odd thoughts, maybe she was more tired than she thought. That had to be it she decided, that was why she was thinking like that. Really it was funny, why would the armored students hold back? She jogged to the other side of the field to help, the sooner they took down the Nevermore the sooner she could rest.

* * *

"Three prospects have died, it isn't even dark yet." Ozpin slowly nodded to his subordinate. Goodwitch frowned. "Are you still watching the transfers? Why did you even make them go through the initiation?"

"All students must go through initiation. Whether they are meant to attended class or not, they must complete the initiation." Ozpin watched the transferred soldiers work with their eight allies to dismantle the Nevermore.

"You still haven't told me where they are from." Goodwitch tapped the edge of his desk, he glanced away as Rose and the lead specialist, Carmine Slate, flew towards the beast together, sword and scythe curving through the bird's feathers to its thin hide. He did not plan to tell her where the soldiers were from and she could tell. He met her eyes then returned to watching the fight. It was rather entertaining. He hadn't seen such so many skilled groups in one year since teams STRQ, BLNK, and WTRR nearly two decades before. He supposed only CFVY had shown as much raw talent as the three proto teams their first year. CFVY had grown into a fine team too if Ozpin said so himself, as second years they were capable of taking on third and some fourth year assignments. Though, he supposed the specialists' team was cheating a bit; what were a couple old Grimm when they had assassinated rogue huntsmen?

As the Nevermore fell from the sky, decapitated by the dual strike, Ozpin allowed a grin to play at his lips. It grew as he switched cameras and saw Jaune leading the others to establish a perimeter around their panting allies. Yes, those three would make fine leaders. Finer tools.

* * *

As night settled over the Emerald Forest the dozen prospects settled into a cave, a meager three miles from the cliff face. Personally, Carmine felt they could make it over before the morning but it wasn't his decision. Command had very clear on what behavior was and was not appropriate, outsing themselves as elite operatives in the first twenty four hours was not a serious violation but one Carmine hoped to avoid. The more like the students he and his squad appeared, the easier it would be to observe them; that was working off the worst case, being forced to go to class with the huntsmen in training. Ozpin wasn't likely to do that though, it would interfere with the operation. At least he hoped that was the case, this exercise was quite annoying. His hand hovered over the hilt of his dust katana nonetheless, they were still in Grimm territory and Carmine had first watch. He settled a few dozen feet from the mouth of the cave, tucked between a few overgrown bushes.

His hands briefly pressed into the jawline of his helmet before he withdrew them. Why allow the students to see his face when he did not plan to be a part of their classes? Instead he curled his legs under himself and drew his sword, leaving the dust carved blades in the sheathe. Red, violet, blue, and yellow light splayed from the wide steel case, each representing a different blade for the sword. Three empty sections stood out in the bright display. In the dark of the forest they were the only lights for him to see by, the thick canopy absorbing whatever moonlight filtered through the clouds. He took a sharpening block from his belt and began cleaning the base blade of his sword. Spark danced along the black iron as Carmine reflected on the day.

The Grimm had been a nuisance, though the fact that a fifteen year old had come up with the solution annoyed him more. Divide and conquer, a tactic older than dirt. In hindsight it was obvious to all of them, still Carmine was willing to argue that sprinting several miles with a massive Grimm on his tail was reason enough to forgo commonsense. That and his entire squad struggling to keep their skill hidden. None of them had slept for a minimum of twenty hours or eaten that day, that was the best way to put on their performance. It was also why the other three had mass produced rifles rather than their custom tools, if they had been properly equipped the Nevermore wouldn't have lasted ten minutes. The Atlesian also had to give Little Red props for getting them through it, without her he doubted his team would have survived the day. They had overcompensated in hiding their skills, there had been more near misses than planned and they had taken too many glancing blows. The students really had helped them out. On the other hand it had been two of the students that led his squad to the Nevermore in the first place. Teenage girls or not, who marched through a Grimm infested forest squealing and yelling? That fiasco didn't even compare the adventure landing after being launched off a cliff had been, how had he forgotten his parachute the one time he really needed it? What kind of headmaster, or employer, launched students, or assassins, off a cliff for a little bauble?

 _It all worked out in the end_. Sparks jumped as he ran the block down his blade again.

Carmine grinned to himself as his thoughts drifted to Little Red and all their fire-forged allies. They were certainly more interesting than the people at the compound. They were also far more annoying, he didn't have a file to learn every little detail on them, besides Champion Nikos of course. Without any intel they would be very hard to manipulate. No, Carmine and his squad would have to get to know them the old fashioned way. Talking, and careful study which most outside of his profession would label stalking. Carmine shook his head, this would not be an easy assignment. It would still be easier than the last, it was less likely all of his subordinates would die at any rate. _At least if anything happens, Command can't demote me anymore_. Carmine chuckled to himself; if he failed this operation, getting another squad would be the least of his worries.

Snap. A twig had the soldier levelling his sword with the disruptor's throat.

"Ah...I-I just wanted to check up on you" Little Red had raised both of her hands, which twitched in a way most would assume meant fear. Carmine knew she was looking for a way to get her scythe. He smiled behind his helmet.

"Force of habit." He sheathed the sword and returned the block to his bandolier. It seemed it was time to learn who his allies were. If Tera's report was true, they always were, Red was as good a choice as any to start with. If she proved to be a threat, it would be simple enough to embarrass her into leaving him alone. For now he would let her stay. Red didn't take her eyes off the sheathed sword as she sat a few feet behind him. Carmine couldn't tell if it was apprehension or curiosity that glittered in her eyes.

"So...do you have a name? Everyone else told us theirs, well everyone but your masked friends." Small hands twisted black and red hair into a loose braid as their owner attempted to ask for Carmine's name. He cocked his head slightly to the side, smiling behind the mask. How had such a sheepish little girl fought so fiercely? Was she playing him?

"Yes Red, we all have names. I'm Carmine. Carmine Slate." the odd girl smiled wide and extended her hand. No, her smile was genuine. The specialist smiled too, the naive and innocent were so much fun.

"Ruby Rose, nice to meet you." Carmine stared at her hand for a moment.

He took it into his own, dwarfing the delicate hand with his steel weave glove.

"It'll be an interesting few years with our little groups won't it?" Ruby nodded frantically.

 _This'll be easier than I thought._

* * *

"As the first six pairs to return from the Emerald Forest, you twelve will be sorted first." Ozpin motioned for them all to come up to the stage together. They stood shoulder to shoulder, backs ramrod straight. The armor clads on the far left, followed by Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora, with Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Blake taking up the right end of the stage. The collected students and teachers on the audience waited with bated breath as Ozpin began to read off the teams.

"For collecting the pair of white knights: Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belldonna, Weiss Schnee, and leader Ruby Rose, are hereby known as Team RWBY." They shuffled off of the stage, Yang ruffling Ruby's hair as Weiss attempted to hide a sneer. Ozpin waited for the crowd to call before moving onto the next team.

"For collecting the black rook pair: Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, Nora Valkeryie, and leader Jaune Arc, will hereby be known as Team JNPR." Jaune was white as a ghost as Pyrrha practically carried him off the stage, Ren and Nora both stifled their giggles until they were safely in the crowd.

"Finally, for collecting the grey king pair: Esme Evergreen, Tera Toupe, Eurig Leone, and Specialist Carmine Slate will hereby be known as Team SLTE." There was some confusion in the crowd over the odd change in Carmine's title and single grey pair of chess pieces, but they clapped nonetheless. None of the newly grouped students really noticed either, or at least acted like they didn't. They were all officially Beacon students. They had passed the first step. Would the second be as simple?


	3. Partners

**Disclaimer: I own nothing involved with RWBY, that belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

The first week of classes were interesting. That was the best way Ruby knew to sum them up as their final class for the week, Grimm Theory with Port, ended.

"Remember, your reports on the weak points of Boarbatusks, Nevermores, and Griffins are due monday. I will be available if any of you need help or would like to discuss the class. Dismissed." Ruby groaned at Port's reminder. Homework was nothing new to the youngest Beacon attendee, but there was a definite difference Uncle Qrow's definition of homework and Beacon staff's definition. Not a one of them had assigned anything practical, just writings and reviews and, in the case of Tactics, a drawn plan of attack.

Ruby was practically bouncing as she packed away her notes, sketches of the assigned Grimm with their vulnerabilities shaded, and scurried out of the room. It was only noon and Ruby was intent to burn off a little excess energy before she started on the numerous assignments the professors had given them. On Patch she could just wander around the woods and hunt the few Grimm that prowled the area; after encountering Elder Grimm during the initiation, Ruby wasn't about to wander the Emerald Forest alone. One of Beacon's gyms would have to suffice.

Stashing her bag and switching out her clothes in the third floor dorm, Ruby was reminded of another "interesting" aspect of the week. As she left the room Weiss marched past her into the dorm. Ruby raised a hand to greet her partner, working out was always better with other people, but immediately lowered it when she met Weiss' eyes. Neither of them spoke as they passed. Ruby sighed.

For some reason Weiss was convinced Ozpin had made a mistake, that Ruby Rose could not possibly be her leader. She had told their team as much the night before, Ruby had left their dorm and only come back after the heiress was asleep. Yang and Blake, at least Yang said her partner would, had wanted to have a "chat" with the heiress; Ruby had forbid it. Weiss was mad at her, she would handle it. Plus, the last person Yang had had a "chat" with had ended up in Signal's infirmary.

Despite not wanting to hurt Weiss, she wanted her to change. Ruby didn't understand why she was so mad at her. Sure, she hadn't done the best in her classes but it was the first week. Everyone else in the class also had two more years of knowledge to draw on, but that wasn't enough for Weiss. To Weiss Ruby was just an unqualified little kid.

Ruby had built one of the most inherently dangerous weapons in the first year class. There had been a time that even swinging Crescent Rose was a danger to Ruby, she had built the first version when she was nine. Uncle Qrow had guided her through the construction and the end result had been little more than a slightly sharpened scythe blank, but it had been her scythe blank. For months she would return home from training sessions with her arms black and blue, the muscles bruised just from swinging the massive thing. When she was eleven and added the rifle component, her collar bone was shattered the first time she pulled the trigger. A 22mm shell had jammed but been set off, which blew the haft back and split her clavicle into four pieces. She had added the shock dispersing stock while her bone mended, and added the spike after a particularly bad fall on a frozen lake. At thirteen she had practically redesigned the entire thing, rebalancing the haft so the scythe could be gripped lower if need be and adding a falx form for higher speed strikes. Ruby Rose was perfectly adjusted for being knocked down and beaten and failing. What she wasn't used to was trying to impress someone else. Through all of her training and tinkering, Qrow and Yang and her dad had been supportive. Even when Qrow was making her sprint through the snow in shorts and a tank top he still cheered her on, when Taiyang made her run a weapons course for the twentieth time he gave her tips after every run. Yang was always willing to help her. There was no support with Weiss. There was no impressing Weiss. All she did was scream and complain and criticize. Ruby was tired of it, they were supposed to be partners for crying out loud.

Ruby walked into the gym and went to the line of punching bags. She stood before them for a moment, huffed, and walked straight out. Maybe if she got all of her homework done before the last minute Weiss wouldn't yell at her, maybe she could even check it over. That was it; her partner respected work, she would show her she could work. Skipping at her plan, Ruby returned to the dorm.

* * *

Weiss was not in their dorm. No, Weiss was actively avoiding the dorm. It wasn't much of an issue, she had gotten to change into her combat clothes for Port's demonstration that day. Even Myrtenaster was strapped to her hip. She had what she needed for an emergency. She had what she needed for class, her books were stashed in her gear locker along with her uniform. Did she have what she need though?

Really, that depended upon who answered. If Weiss answered she would say yes. A week in and she was top of the class; every assignment edited to perfection, every in class question answered clearly and concisely, every demonstration carried through with nary a misstep. If Ruby answered she would say yes and stutter through until she could escape. Her team leader seemed hellbent on being accepted, on making everyone happy. Her efforts were generally annoying to the heiress, though she did find Ruby adorable when she stuttered and pressed her fingers together trying to think up an answer. She would never admit that bit. If Port answered, as he had felt compelled to after class ended and Ruby practically sprinted away, he would say no.

"I really liked your story today professor." The professor had turned and smiled at her.

"Of course you did, child. You have the blood of a true Huntress in you."

"You think so?" Weiss caught herself, _a Schnee does not seek approval from anyone._ "I mean, thank you. Can we talk for a moment professor?"

"Dear girl, confess to me your strife!" Port practically jumped at the invitation. Weiss jumped at the sudden outburst.

"I-I" _a Schnee does not stutter,_ "think Ozpin made a mistake in choosing Ruby as our leader and-" Weiss refused to glare as the professor interrupted her.

"I've believed in Professor Ozpin for many years, and the man's never once led me astray!" The large professor clasped his hands. "If he has put his faith in Ms. Rose, it is not without good reason"

"She doesn't have the discipline or skill I do, we got lucky in the forest." Weiss balked at Port's chuckle.

"It was she who split your group, it was she who began your synchronized assault. It was not luck that allowed you to defeat the Grimm but an unusual display of attunement. So instead of fretting about what you feel your team lacks, savor what you know you have. Hone your skills, perfect every technique, and be, not the best leader, but the best person you can be."

Though his denouncement had been much kinder than Yang's the night before, they both basically summed up the issue as Weiss being "a jealous little shit". Of course she had lied through her teeth and argued against him. _A Schnee was not corrected_. She shook her head, her father's edicts had a habit of popping up when they weren't wanted.

With a sigh Weiss opened the door to the roof and glanced between the main clock tower and the spire atop the dorms. She walked over to the spire and began to climb; hands and feet finding sturdy holds like old friends, she stood at the summit in moments.

Calm settled over her as she sat on the ledge, high and isolated places had always had that effect on her. In the Schnee estate the roof and long-sealed chimneys were the only places safe from her father's informants, safe from his control. Sure, she was punished every time the drones couldn't find her and eventually father had barred her windows but the peace had been worth it. The high places were a home within her house. On that logic the Schnee foundry in Atlas was more of a home than the Schnee estate.

She had always felt more comfortable on the factory floor, scurrying along catwalks and peeking around corners. The stark offices her sister and father found so fitting were woefully dull to the heiress. On the floor there was juicy gossip and rough workers and actual action, processing dust was a noisy and dangerous process. In the offices there was quiet chatter and too many people terrified of the peon above them, convinced that Stier Schnee could hear every word anyone in the building said. The office drones would have licked her boots clean if she asked. Those weren't the type of people Weiss wanted to be around. The floor workers were not her people either, they had been terrified of her. Weiss hadn't just snuck around because her father would have a fit if anyone caught her, though that had been a strong motivator; the workers would scatter if they saw her or do their best to blend into their station if running wasn't an option. The worst part to Weiss wasn't just that they feared her but that it was because of Winter. Her elder sister had apparently made a habit of patrolling the foundry floor and firing anyone she felt like, on the spot. She had ruined over a dozen lives before their father caught on, at which point she was promoted for "making the floor more efficient". Winter and Father weren't her people. Who were her people? Weiss didn't know.

 _You are not your family_ , echoed through her head as she swung her feet. The glare she had given Ruby as she passed their dorm said otherwise. Treating her partner, who was personally invited to Beacon by the headmaster, like a misbehaving toddler said otherwise. The hypocrisy was not lost on Weiss. Still, she couldn't just let it go. Port's talk had helped but it had not erased the issue. Years of conditioning did not fade with a sentence. Knowing you were wrong and admitting it were to very different things.

Still, _you are not your family was repeated in her head_. Honor the vow or be a good little heiress? She almost laughed at the choice. Whether she admitted it or not she felt bad for how she had treated Ruby. She wanted to make it up to her, but how? With a sigh Weiss settled against the spire, tiles warm on her back. She would think of something.

* * *

Ruby huffed and flopped onto her back. Paper swirled around her from the sudden movement, sketches of a nevermore and a griffin floating by her head. She sighed as half her notes slipped off the edge, sailing free from her suspended bed.

That had been one of the highlights of the week, jury rigging bunk beds and decorating the dorm. It had been one of the only times Weiss smiled at her all week, all four of them had added their own touches to the room. Yang pasted posters all over her section, practically repainting the upper right wall neon. Blake had filled the bookcase with what seemed to be her own personal library, although Ruby had noticed that she kept a few thin books under her bed or pillow despite there still being space for them. Weiss had even put up a fancy painting for them all to enjoy. _Would Weiss be happier if we fancified the rest of the room?_

Ruby shook her head. Why did she care? Why did her heart flutter whenever Weiss didn't glare at her? She didn't know, and that wasn't the problem at hand. The problem at hand was significantly more mind numbing. Ruby rolled back over before tossing her pen off the edge of the bed. She groaned into her note book. She was out the door before she knew where she was headed.

After a moment of thought Ruby decided to keep it that way, she had nowhere to go. Finding Blake was next to impossible, she was like a shadow. Plus, she hid her ears all the time so Ruby couldn't just look for someone with cat ears to find her faster. Weiss was still pissed off if her earlier scowl was a hint. Yang was off with her other friends, it turned out a few Signal graduates were scattered in the first and second years. It was a shame Ruby didn't know any of them, not to any meaningful degree at least. She had barely even talked to her own yearmates, let alone those a year or two above her. So, Ruby Rose wandered the halls of Beacon alone and lonely.

"Your tie is crooked." Ruby started at the voice, blinking and trying to figure out where she had wandered. Ozpin stood on a balcony before her, in the shade of his personal tower. She had managed to wander half way across the school. The fading sunlight supported her guess. Ruby didn't bother to adjust the bolo.

"Everything going well?" Ozpin stared through her.

"Wei-I...I don't think I should be the leader. I think you made a mistake."

Ozpin took a step closer, Ruby looked at the ground. Dull steel eyes studying dull stone.

"Ruby. I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet. But at this moment I would not consider your appointment as leader to be one of them. Do you really think I'm wrong?" His brown eyes twinkled.

"No...I just want us to work together. We did great in the forest! It was like we all just belonged together, but...just here, nothing goes right." It was true. Weiss just yelled and glared at every mistake. Blake breezed through her coursework and Yang knew how to do just enough to pass; Ruby had tried to copy their effortlessness but ended up falling flat. They all knew people or had things to do after class. They always looked like they knew what they were doing. Why wasn't being like them as easy as fighting in the forest?

"Being a team leader isn't just a title you carry into battle, but a badge you wear constantly. If you are not always performing at your absolute best, then what reason do you give others to follow you?" Ozpin put his hand on her shoulder.

Ruby looked at her feet and mumbled in response.

"You've been burdened with a daunting responsibility, Ruby. I advise you take some time to think about how you will uphold it." Ozpin turned and glanced at Ruby over his shoulder.

He grinned and sipped his coffee as her eyes brightened just a shade. Sleeping sterling eyes shining up at him.

"Thank you headmaster." Ruby was gone before Ozpin could think of responding.

"Anytime Ms. Rose, anytime." _I'll solve your petty squabbles for now. You will need this peace later_. Ozpin took another sip of coffee and adjusted his glasses. A sliver of silver flashed over the lenses as he made his way back to the tower.

That night Weiss awoke to a sliver of light on the floor. Blinking sleep from her eyes, she saw it was past four in the morning. It wasn't sunlight. It wasn't from the hallway or the bathroom, even Yang was fast asleep. Silently rising, Weiss peeked at the bed above her. Joining the ropes that kept it afloat, sheets had been secured to the posts; a jury rigged tent to hide that Ruby's desk lamp was on. Her partner grinned as she found the flaw in the tent, Ruby hadn't tucked in the gap she climbed up through. Weiss stood on her bed and stuck her head through the hole.

 _She's cute when she's sleeping_ , Weiss immediately shook her head. The snap of a belt echoed through her head as she studied her sleeping partner. Ruby laid on her stomach, a textbook serving as her pillow and a pen dangling from her mouth. An empty coffee cup rested on a notebook above her head, Weiss snatched it before gently tapping Ruby.

"How do you take your coffee?" The dazed girl just blinked at her. Weiss raised a delicate eyebrow.

"I don't-" A slight glare cut her off. "Cream-and-five-sugars." Weiss smiled at her leader's rapid speech. It was so cu-Weiss shook her head and left to get coffee. She returned with Ruby's doctored mug and a black cup of her own. Ruby hurried to rearrange her homework as Weiss climbed up with the coffee.

"So, what are you having problems with?" Ruby just stared at the still grinning heiress. She took a sip of coffee before answering.

"Mostly the dust mechanics." Weiss beamed at her, she could help. Ruby smiled back.

"I'll get my notebook." Ruby drank more of the coffee and discreetly pinched her hand for good measure, she was awake. She was awake and Weiss was being helpful. What had happened?

The question was wiped from her mind as her partner returned, smiling and offering help. It didn't matter. The fluttering her chest started again as Weiss leaned close and began to tutor her. She had her partner, and that was all that mattered.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Sorry about the wait. This story is very much still in development(as in I don't have chapters stowed away to post), but I am hoping to post at least once a week. Chapter 4 should be up within a few days and remember, reviews are always welcome. If you find any errors, have any questions, or just want to comment on how the story is progressing, please feel free to PM me or write a review.**


	4. Attachment

**Disclaimer: I own nothing involved with RWBY, that belongs to Rooster Teeth. This chapter also gets a warning, there are mentions to child abuse and sexuality shaming.**

* * *

"The fight will go until either one side's aura is depleted or cedes. There is no time limit, there are no forced tapouts. Please, try not to do any permanent damage to your yearmates." Goodwitch snapped her crop and released the students to change for sparring. Eight o'clock., hand-to-hand sparring; a great way to end a monday. Ruby was practically vibrating as she sprinted into the locker room.

She and Yang were changed before most of the students had even entered the room. Since today was a purely hand-to-hand combat session none of the students were allowed to wear their full armor or dust weave clothes, the extra protection wasn't necessary; instead each of the first year teams were given shorts and tank tops, each team discernible by the color of their shorts. To keep the combat exercises a reasonable length, only three or four teams would be present in any given class. Team JNPR were given teal trunks, CRDL bright red, and RWBY black. Like cage fighters, most of the boys decided to go topless though Ren notably chose to keep his tank top. The girls, for obvious reasons, were not allowed to go completely topless; though Yang, Nora, and Blake wore only their sports bras.

"How is that fair?" Weiss sudden question brought Ruby back to the locker room. She glanced around, gaze settling over team CRDL. Cardin and his allies had outfitted themselves with steel shin guards and forearm plates. "Is Goodwitch seriously going to let them wear those?"

"She doesn't have a choice, they're within Beacon's regulations." All but Blake jumped at Tera's appearance behind them. "Only dust weave clothing, gauntlets, boots, and legitimate weapons are forbidden in hand-to-hand sparring. We're huntsmen after all, not every fight will be fair."

"But-" Weiss jerked away from the finger Tera raised to her lips.

"Shut up Icee, that's the first tip. Second, Blondie?" Yang raised an eyebrow at the face masked girl "Semblance are still allowed, encouraged even."

Tera was gone just as fast as she'd appeared. Ruby's head whipped around, when had team SLTE gotten here? After identifying them in the back corner, Ruby also had to ask why they were dressed so much differently than the other students. Instead of loose trunks and tank tops they wore cargo pants and, besides the shorter boy, fitted long sleeve shirts. The shorter boy forwent a top entirely, though a wide black ribbon covered the majority of his left bicep. The nameless girl also still had her armor on her arms, covering her entire left arm and the right from the elbow down. All four of them also wore opaque face masks. If Ruby was honest they were a bit unnerving. What were they that no one could be allowed to see their faces? Why had Tera given them tips?

She had no answers, they were complete unknowns. Ruby had barely even seen them in class. Team SLTE had shown up to half a dozen of Port's lectures and, since the third week had begun, sparring. They had hidden their skills and true weapons in the initiation, constantly hid their faces, and barely showed up to class. Truly interesting people. They scared her a little.

"Ay, princess, you know you can't fight in your uniform right?" Yang raised an eyebrow to the still not dressed Weiss. Ruby jumped again, she needed to focus for the fights. The heiress huffed and crossed her arms.

"I'm waiting for the crowd to thin, it's not like matters when we go back in anyway." The sisters both looked at her oddly but didn't pry. Yang chalked it up to the ice queen not wanting the "riff raff" see her change. Ruby just thought she was nervous, Weiss was always one of the last to change. Now that she thought about it, Ruby realized Weiss never changed with the class. She had shown up to the initiation fully dressed; she was the first one awake in their dorm every morning. Ruby couldn't even remember Weiss using the communal showers(which to Ruby's relief were separated by gender), she always used the small one in the dorm. The ever cloaked girl shrugged, so what if she didn't like to change around other people. Ruby had her cloak, Weiss had her aversion to public nudity.

True to her habit, Weiss waited until most of other students had left to wave her team away. They left her to change with no argument, Yang and Ruby had been ready to get back to the stage since they changed. By the time Weiss made it into the stands and found her team, Ruby was literally bouncing. Her partner's long sleeve shirt barely registered as odd to the excited girl. Over two weeks of schoolwork, boring papers and notes, a fight was just what she needed. She clasped her hands, a manic grin spreading across her face, as Goodwitch snapped her riding crop.

"As stated before, this is the first round for rankings. Each round will test individual skill, partner skill, and team skill. As such, all matches will be randomized using this," All eyes went to the back wall. A digital screen flared to life roughly halfway up the wall, eight blank boxes glowed in two columns. "Any combination is possible, from one on one to one on four."

Ruby and Yang grinned wider, Beacon knew how to stage a show. Murmurs spread through the gathered first years; even the masked team seemed excited, or at least apprehensive.

"Please, do not cause any permanent damage to your yearmates." With that the matchmaker hummed and spun the boxes, twelve faces and four question marks blurred by. Three boxes turned up blank, Blake's ribbon clad head appeared in the fourth. Blake Belladonna and an aura gauge filling in the empty space on her side. A single question mark appeared in the second column, Eurig Leone. The two combatants made their way to the stage, the edges lowing into a ramp to let them down.

"Your match begins in," Goodwitch pointed to the match maker. A green ten glowed between the aura gauges. Both raised one hand in front of their face and one in front of their abdomen as the clock neared zero.

 _Buzz_. They charged; Eurig flipping as he neared, a kick chambered for Blake's torso. She was just a hair shorter than her opponent though, and easily slid under his outstretched foot. Turning, she responded with a backfist. Eurig blocked and lunged with a knee, both of his hands at his sides. The hidden cat faunus let the blow brush her abs before boosting above Eurig with a doppleganger, delivering a brutal axe kick on her way down. He staggered back.

"Nice shot." Blake could barely hear Eurig, the kick had knocked his face mask forward and misaligned the microphone. It had also revealed sandy hair and a pair of folded down ears. Both were hidden once he adjusted the mask. Blake was still perplexed by the reveal as the faunus stutter stepped and delivered a right cross to her cheek. A hook both snapped her head to the side and dropped her aura by a fourth. Eurig swung again, stumbling as his fist passed through a doppelganger and stumbling back as a heel dug into his abdomen. They circled each other.

Eurig boxed Blake's hidden ears, she knelt holding her head. Why hadn't she remembered a spare ribbon for the forest? In retaliation she swung for his head, knowing he would dodge, then launched herself to the left with a doppelganger. A second replacement ensured his back fist missed and she slammed the heel of her hand into the crook of his elbow. Just like his tap to her ears, the blow did very little to drop his aura but made his bicep seize up. They disengaged again, both glancing at the aura gauges. Fifty seven, forty; Eurig had the advantage. Blake raised her hands in a more defensive stance. There was a cream smear on the inside of her left hand.

She slowed her circling, taking another glance at the make up smeared on her hand wrap. Red and purple glared from the crook of his elbow. The lion tracked her gaze and quickly covered the joint, flexing to hide it. Blake raised her hands and resumed her circling, Eurig discreetly loosened the band on his upper arm. She lashed out, he batted her away. The band slipped over the track marks. Another clash of dodges and taps and they were back on opposite ends of the stage.  
Blake squinted at the boy's bicep as they inched closer again. It looked like he had tried to remove a tattoo with sandpaper. Despite the heavy scarring, she could still make out three pale lines. She knew what he was and it pissed her off. The cat bolted forward with a hiss, vaulting over Eurig's almost lazy punch. Her fist was an inch from his back when it happened. The traitor's foot swept back and Blake was falling forward, a moment later and she was nearly embedded in the wall. She wasn't the only one with a semblance. The buzzer rang as her aura dropped to sixteen, anything below twenty resulted in a loss. Ruby was a bit confused when Eurig tried to help Blake up and she swatted his hand away, but said nothing as her teammate returned to the stands. Yang clapped her on the shoulder but also stayed silent. Blake kept glaring at the traitor.

Following Blake and, the newly named, Eurig's match were Cardin Winchester and Jaune Arc. Ruby tensed as the two took the stage, this wasn't going to end well.

"Come on Jaune!" she cheered as the countdown began. Pyrrha joined as she shouted again, "You can do it!"

It became very apparent that he could not in fact "do it" when the match actually began. Cardin charged straight for the smaller boy, displaying an alarming speed for someone his size. Like a fool, or someone unfamiliar with the concept of dodging, Jaune attempted to block the hook. Ruby winced as he was knocked off balance, grimacing when Cardin followed up with another hook. Jaune's aura dropped by a third, a testament to his opponent's strength. Cardin was up there with Yang and Nora in raw physicality, he had crushed a boarbatusk's skull in a single strike during the initiation.

Still, Jaune did not give up; instead he punched back. The larger boy again displayed his disturbing agility by dodging three of the five strikes, the other two dinged off his forearm guards. The leader of JNPR staggered back, his hands curled in front of him. Even with aura, smashing your hands into steel could easily fracture bones. In a slight act of mercy Cardin batted Jaune's hands to either side before driving his knee into the boy's solar plexus instead of crushing his hands. For a moment it seemed the ill conditioned boy would recover, maybe put up a little more of a fight, but an elbow between the shoulder blades thought otherwise.

Ruby's brow furrowed as she checked the aura gauge, twenty one to ninety eight. Jaune twitched as Cardin sauntered around him, coughing and struggling to even prop himself up. Cardin placed his heel on the back of his head. Jaune whined as the larger boy slowly added more pressure, suffocating him but not putting enough pressure in to shatter his aura. Ruby's knuckles went white against the raised ramp, Jaune's muffled screams echoed around the stage. Cardin smiled. Goodwitch did nothing as Jaune's torture continued.

Ruby's eyes flashed to the professor as the match bell rang, Jaune had stopped struggling. _Why didn't she stop it sooner?_ Cardin too stared at the professor before finally retracting his foot. Ren and Pyrrha ran to Jaune, Nora joining a second later to take him to the infirmary. The room was silent as they left.

"Mr. Winchester we will be having words after class," Goodwitch cleared the match maker, obviously disturbed by the ginger brute's display. "On to our next match."

Ruby's smiling face was the first to appear, followed by Weiss. Who would they fight? Ruby hoped it was someone from CRDL. Weiss looked terrified, how was Cardin's way of fighting allowed?

An empty box rolled into the second column. Goodwitch raised her crop to get the students' attention.

"I forgot to mention, a blank box means you can choose your opponent." Ruby almost answered before Goodwitch closed her mouth.

"Cardin Winchester." Goodwitch shook her head.

"Mr. Winchester has already-" The professor glared as the boy cleared his throat.

"Nah, I want to fight them," Cardin motioned to the aura display, all were full save the sliver Jaune's attempted assault had stolen, "Jauney boy and two little girls, which can hurt more?"

Ruby rolled on impact with the stage, raising her hands in a defensive stance. She wanted revenge for Jaune but had no illusions that she could take Cardin in a straight punch up. It was good she was used to sparring Yang. Weiss was even more cautious, marching down the ramp and setting up behind Ruby. Without Myrtenaster, and her dust cartridges, her glyphs were rather limited.

The trio glanced at each other all through the countdown, lunging as one the second the count ended. Ruby blurred behind Cardin in a shower of petals as he crashed into a weak repulsion glyph, the partners struck. The caster shoved her hand forward, shifting the glyph and Cardin backward, the sprinter delivered a kick to the back of his head. The partners broke away on either side of Cardin, he glared at them. Keeping to the strategy, Weiss charged and raised a glyph at the last moment while Ruby bolted around to strike him. Another success. Cardin roared as they came forward for the third time, both Ruby and Weiss ended up in front of him. A purple splotch had on his cheek.

A quick glance at the match maker showed the duo were making progress, having dealt twenty five points of damage, but had not made it through unscathed. Though Cardin had yet to land a blow, Weiss aura had dropped to almost sixty. With no dust, casting glyphs was a significant drain on her. Likewise, Ruby had dropped to seventy from constantly bolting around the arena. They shared a glance, they needed a new trick.

"We have to hit him fast," Weiss caught the hint as Ruby ran towards their opponent without her semblance. A trail of acceleration glyphs glowed to life along the arena wall, rose petals littered the floor. The strike would have at least doubled the damage to Cardin, a drop kick to the head at that speed may have even taken him out of the match. Instead, Ruby's aura dropped by ten points. Cardin leered at her through his translucent shield, her purpling heels lashed out the second it dropped. With her semblance active, Ruby could dodge a shotgun at point blank; without it she was just a very fit, small, teenager. Cardin caught her foot and skipped her into the wall like a stone across a pond.

In his fervor to pay back the cloak clad girl, he lost track of her partner; an elbow to the gut reminded him. Weiss followed up with a front kick and palm strike to the sternum, Cardin's back met the raised ramp. A glancing blow and Weiss was knocked back, a hand trailing over the floor. A black glyph flared under the seething bully. His eyes widened, comically slow, as he realized just what he was standing in. Ruby roared and activated her semblance to beat down the trapped boy. Petals tracked her limbs as she bent and kicked and punched the nearly immobile boy. His aura dropped to forty within ten seconds. Ruby's dropped lower than that.

They however had the aura to spare, Weiss went to one knee. The glyph faltered and Cardin's fingers clenched around her hood, Ruby was brought to a choking stop. The glyph failed entirely as the bruiser spun her by the throat and tossed her towards Weiss. Both of their aura's dropped by ten points as they tumbled across the stage. Weiss was eliminated from the match. Ruby propped herself on her hands and knees, panting. Her head swiveled as she searched for Cardin, he had moved from across the arena. Fingers threaded through her hair and yanked back, of course he was behind her.  
Aura kept her hair from snapping from the stress or tearing out of her scalp, which left her at Cardin's mercy. Merciful he was not, being forced into a wall by a little girl did not sit well with the bruiser. Ruby's aura plummeted as Cardin wrenched back her arm and slammed her face into the wall once. The match bell rang. On the second strike her aura flickered, her shoulder gave more than it should. On the third her aura failed and blood blossomed from her broken nose. On the fourth, Cardin let the bloody girl go limp. Before her horrified teammates could collect her however, the ginger bully buried his foot in her gut and skipped her across the ring. Ruby stayed still. Weiss hurried to her side. Heat pulsed from the middle of the stands.

"Winchester, in my off-" Goodwitch was cut off by Yang diving into the ring, fists raised and eyes crimson. "Xiao Long, off the stage." Neither of the students backed down. She opened her mouth to punish them both but paused. In all reality, the Winchester boy wouldn't care if he was yelled at or made to serve detention. Having the Xiao Long girl beat him down on the other hand...Goodwitch sighed and tossed a blue tablet to Cardin. His aura instantly replenished itself. "Combatants take your places."

Ten; Yang growled, Cardin smirked.

Nine. Flames licked their way down the brawler's arms.

Cardin lowered his hands as eight flashed on the screen.

Murmurs spread through the crowd and the clock hit seven.

Five. _What's he doing?_

Goodwitch scoffed as Cardin unclipped his hand wraps. Four.

At three the boy turned his back and took a step towards the edge of the ring.

At two he raised his hand.

"I concede." _One_.

Yang lunged only for something dark to tackle her, Cardin gave a lopsided smile and sauntered down from the stage. Goodwitch's threat towards the bully was drowned out of Yang's head by her own pulse. It hammered in her ears, crying for blood like a fire cried for fuel. Everything had a red tint as she struggled against the weight on her back. Dull echoes bounced around her ears. The weight jerked her around, dragging her face along the ground to Ruby. Sound returned with a howl, Yang stopped fighting. Ruby was slowly rising from the ground with Weiss' help. A glance at Goodwitch and the duo were making their way out of the room, no doubt to get Ruby's head checked in the infirmary. Blake helped her partner to her feet and set off after the other pair.

Silence ruled the room. Goodwitch seethed on the stage, her crop gripped in a white knuckled fist. Cardin smiled at the back of the room, content to weather Goodwitch's admonishment. Tera studied him under her mask, baring her teeth at the pride flowing off him. Carmine grabbed her shoulder before she could take a step, she settled back beside him. Goodwitch finally sighed and clicked off the match maker.

"Class dismissed. Winchester, in the office." Team SLTE were among the last to leave. Tera and Eurig both studied the thin streak of blood Ruby had smeared across the arena. Carmine eyed them, knowing their pasts and their gut reactions. They were reactions the squad could not afford, their employer was already displeased with them for their performance in a previous job. Repeatedly displeasing squads did not last long in their organization. Carmine planned to live at least a bit longer; as such he ushered the two, no doubt scowling, soldiers out of the room and towards the hub. Goodwitch's combat class was both their only mandatory class and the last class of the day, the early end gave them plenty of time to do some much needed organizing. Organizing and talking; while the Beacon students had their uses, there was no need for his squad to get attached to them.

* * *

"Yang!" her voice was hoarse from Cardin's second throw. Weiss flinched when Ruby turned to glare at her sister. _So much blood._ The congealing liquid covered her partner from her nose to her breasts, giving the top of her shirt a sickly sheen.

"It'll only take a minute, we need to get your head checked." Yang did not seem to be fazed by the blood, she just seemed annoyed. Ruby wouldn't budge though, she was rooted to her spot in the middle of the hall.

"It's been like half a year since-I'm fine," The petite girl pulled out her scroll as proof, "see? I'm already back to ten." All three of her teammates looked skeptical, rising from three to ten percent aura was not a great improvement. In fact it still meant her aura was practically useless, anything below twenty percent meant only the most basic boost to healing could be felt. Yang especially was not convinced.

"Just come on, you need an aura boost," Ruby ducked under her sister's grab, "Quit acting like a little kid. This is-"

"Just drop it Yang," Weiss stepped between the sisters, "if Ruby doesn't want to go, just let her stay." Despite her worry for the little scythe wielder, Weiss was tired of hearing them argue. It had almost been a fifteen minutes since class ended and they hadn't stopped. Plus, why not let Ruby do what she wanted and be happy? It was Weiss fault she was beaten so badly anyway; if she had been braver and resigned herself to fight Cardin alone, Ruby wouldn't have been bashed into a wall. Yang turned towards the heiress and opened her mouth but Blake's hand on her shoulder kept the words from coming out.

"How about we go get some snacks and just bring an aura boost to the dorm?" the faunus discreetly pushed her partner towards the end of the hall as she spoke. "I need something for these burns anyway." Yang folded her arms and sighed as Blake raised her blistered hands, she hadn't wanted to burn her partner. It was only right she go with her to the infirmary to explain how Blake was burned. The brawler wasn't happy about it, fixing Weiss and Ruby with a red eyed glare to make sure they knew too, but marched off with her partner. The white and red haired duo entered their dorm, Ruby was careful not to drip blood on anything.

"We need to get you cleaned up." Weiss ushered Ruby to sit on her bed while she wet a cloth in the dorm's bathroom. Obediently, she sat down and swiped at her nose every few seconds. It had really stopped bleeding but Ruby really didn't want to get blood on Weiss bed. The heiress, and her belongings, were always very clean; she wasn't going to mess that up. She wanted to please Weiss. _Why?_

She almost shook her head at the thought but thought better of it. All Ruby had to do was look at Weiss to answer herself. Even with her brow furrowed in worry and eyes shining with concern, the heiress was beautiful. Ruby smiled at her when she sat down.

The silence of the room was comforting to the duo as Weiss set her work, first scrubbing the blood from the back of Ruby's hand. It came off easily enough. The blood around her nose and mouth was a bit tougher, she was gentle but still almost ended up rubbing Ruby's lips raw.

 _Tsk, tsk_ ; the heiress turned her head to wipe away the blood smeared on her cheek. Ruby winced as Weiss' thumb pressed into the bridge of her nose, the offending hand was jerked away.

"Sorry." Weiss touch was light as a feather.

"It's fine." Ruby grinned to reassure her. _My nose gets broken and I'm trying to keep her spirits up_. Ruby would have laughed if her ribs didn't ache every other breath. She raised her chin so her neck could be cleaned. Weiss even smiled when Ruby giggled at the cloth's tickling. She giggled again when Weiss gripped her side to wipe the blood from her chest, the partners smiled at each other. "All done?"

"Uh..yea-erm, yes." Weiss blushed as she realized just how close they were sitting; her hand still on Ruby's side and their legs touching. _A Schnee does not-_ Weiss stood up. Maybe she didn't want to act like a Schnee. "Would you like to go to the library? We can work on the paper due next week," her voice faltered slightly, "or just...go for a walk?"

To her relief Ruby jumped up, nodding and clapping her hands. Then her eyes glazed over. It was only for a second but Weiss noticed, her partner stuttered in her clapping.

"I just need to change out of this." Her voice had an odd lilt to it and her hands shook as she motioned to the blood stained top. Weiss watched Ruby with some suspicion, the petite girl opened her drawer. Weiss turned around as her partner changed shirts; maybe it was just a side effect of her aura being low. That could have all kinds of odd effects on people, though Weiss was lucky to only suffer a bit of a headache. Her worry returned however as a silent minute passed, then another. Ruby still didn't make a sound.

"Ruby?" the girl was staring at the tank top she had just changed out of. A tiny thread of relief wove its way through Weiss as she noticed Ruby had actually put on another shirt. Weiss stepped closer as Ruby's face twisted in confusion. "Ruby?"

"Yea...just when did I change?" Weiss pressed her lips together. Was it a concussion? Worse? "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Ruby, changed a few minutes ago." Weiss began to reach towards her partner but stopped halfway. Ruby had started running her hands through her hair and mumbling to herself.

"I don't...I don't remember," Her eyes cleared and focused on Weiss. The heiress sighed just before Ruby raised a hand to her own neck, seemingly checking her pulse. "Oh no."

"What is it?" Ruby paled, Weiss reached towards her arm but stopped short.

"Yang!" Weiss opened her mouth to find out what was happening and snapped it shut. Ruby stumbled towards the bed, turned towards her partner, and her eyes rolled back in her head.

The cry of breaking glass echoed down the hall as Ruby convulsed on the bed, sliding off and checking her shoulder on one of the bed's legs in the process. In her panic Weiss dove to Ruby and tried to pry her jaw open, some half remembered fact convincing her that her partner might swallow her own tongue. She managed to force her mouth open a sliver before Yang ran into the room.

"Keep that up and you'll lose a finger." Weiss released her partner's jaw; partly from shock partly from Yang pushing her back. Yang cradled her sister's head in her lap and gently held her still, minimizing the bruises. A knot formed in the heiress' stomach as she glanced at the fresh, purple finger marks all along Ruby's jaw.

"This has happened before?" Blake asked, discreetly pushing Weiss further away from the sisters. She knew her partner well enough to be worried when she got calm. Yang raised her right hand in response, a thin scar stretched between her index and ring fingers. Ruby slowly stilled, Yang set her on Weiss bed once she was sure the episode was over. Ruby did not open her eyes and her breathing was a bit ragged, but she was otherwise alright. For a moment Yang paid particular attention to her sister's eyelids, tracking the movements of her eyes through them. They were still. The worst was over.

"Blake," the faunus nodded to her exhausted sounding partner, "I need a glass of water for her." Yang didn't look up from her sister to watch Blake leave. She brushed a few strands of red and black hair out of Ruby's face before turning to Weiss.

"What was that?" The heiress' voice was shaky but demanding. To anyone else she would have sounded desperate and concerned, to an already annoyed Yang she was just petulant.

"A seizure; you know, convulsions and jaws locking and all that you just saw," the blonde stood, "Most people can identify them easy enough. Did daddy not buy a good enough tutor?"

"You know what I meant." Yang was in Weiss face in an instant.

"This is what happens when Ruby takes a shot to the head, uses her semblance, and runs out of aura. This is why I wanted her to go get a aura boost." Weiss refused to meet Yang's mauve eyes but did not back away. The brawler's fingers cracked as she clenched and unclenched her fists, would knocking the Schnee on her ass help? Probably.

"I didn't know," Yang balked down at her, hitting was too nice. "I'm-"

"You're what, sorry?" Weiss took a step back, Yang pulled her back by the collar her of shirt, "Of course you didn't know, how would you? One week you're a complete asshole, the next you just up and become miss helpful. Now, you're all about having fun and shit like my sister is your date." Weiss fixed her gaze on the floor. Yang grabbed her chin and forced her to look in her eyes. Yang sneered down at her, "Is that it Ice Queen, do you want to be Ruby's girlfriend? Who am I kidding, how could you? You can't protect her. You don't know anything about her."

Blake returned with the water, freezing in the doorway at the stand off.

Yang's anger was expected, really the cat was surprised half the room wasn't on fire. Still, her partner's red eyes were unnerving. Weiss' withdrawal on the other hand was a real shock; the Schnee hadn't backed away from the living furnace, but had locked her gaze on her feet and locked her jaw. Looking closer, Blake could tell she was shaking the tiniest bit. Was it anger? Disgust at being berated by someone like Yang? Irritation at being wrong? Blake cleared her throat. All eyes went to her.

Fear. Fear was all she saw in the heiress red rimmed eyes. The sweet scent mixed with her perfume as Weiss bolted for the door, Blake let her pass. Yang glared at her partner but accepted the water without a word. Only after the pill had been coaxed down the unconscious girl's throat, and the remaining water placed on the desk above her, did Yang return her eyes to her partner.

"What was that?" Blake was all for knocking a Schnee down a peg, hell she'd done more than that. Whatever had been done to Weiss wasn't that. Blake had seen all kinds of people react all kinds of ways to being put in their place, none of them had been that scared. The fact she could smell the terror said it all, something was wrong.

"A rich bitch-" Yang's eyes narrowed when Blake shook her head. The faunus suppressed a shiver, it was like a demon was staring her down.

"She was terrified Yang," Blake sat on her bed, "to the point she ran the first chance she got." The brawler had the decency to look at least slightly ashamed. "Anything you said or did that could have set her off like that?"

"I don't know...uh, I asked if she wanted to date Ruby." the brawler shrugged and yawned, it had been a very long day. Blake sighed and buried her face in her hands, _so the rumors were true._ She smiled into her palms, the White Fang's quartermaster owed her fifty lien. Well he would have if she was still a member. "Does she have an issue with that kinda thing?"

Blake glanced up at her partner. The brawler just looked tired. All the fight had left her; eyes dark rimmed and lilac and full of concern for the girl she had been ready to pummel through the floor not four minutes before. Blake would never understand the oddly named sisters. "Is she alright?"

"I'll find her, we just need to...talk to her. Explain a few things maybe." Blake rose and made it to the doorway before a hoarse voice called from Weiss' bed.

"Find who?" Oh, aura boost worked fast. _Why can't anything just be easy with these two?_

* * *

"This isn't a place I would have thought to find you, Red or the kitten, but not you." Weiss crossed her ankles over the edge of the tower.

"How did you get up here?" She sighed as Tera sat beside her, full armor once again obscuring her form. She reminded Weiss more of the robots that bolstered Atlas' defenses than a person in all of her armor. The way her helmet distorted her voice only added to the comparison.

"How did you?" Weiss jumped as Tera's mask hissed, the gas mask seal releasing, and it soon joined the girls on the ledge. Twinkling blue eyes bored into Weiss. "Out with it Schnee, what's wrong?"

"Why do you think something's wrong?" Weiss was caught off guard by the girl's appearance. She was young, as young as the rest of them, but there was something off about her expression. It was too rigid; Tera was obviously concerned but she didn't seem to know how to show it. Was Weiss right to compare her to a robot?

"No one scales a tower like this when they feel great." the odd girl leaned back, raising her chin slightly. A tan scar glowered across her throat in stark contrast to her otherwise milky flesh. Androids didn't scar.

"I didn't...I didn't like seeing Cardin beat Ruby." Weiss crossed her ankles and hunched her shoulders slightly, as if she was trying to fold into herself. _A Schnee does not lie. Well, what was a Schnee to do when the primarch's edicts contradicted each other?_ Weiss took a deep breath. Now was not the time to juggle her father's rules around in her head.

"It is a rare soldier who enjoys watching their comrades be beaten to a pulp." Tera ran her hands through her hair, loosening the meager binds. Weiss was momentarily surprised by the length of the girl's hair, it was as longer than Ruby's. An ember of anger seared her chest as the morning's fight blurred through her head.

"That's not...I didn't want to see Yang or Blake get hit either but, it was different." Tera looked at her out of the corners of her eyes. "And she had a-...I wanted to tear Cardin apart when he kicked her." Tera didn't know about that. Weiss wouldn't embarrass her by spreading around that she had a seizure, especially not if it could happen again. Why hadn't she just raised a glyph and stayed in the fight?

"I think Blondie did too." Weiss scowled at Tera. The surprisingly young and pretty girl just smiled. Weiss in turn tried to push her away, knock that prying grin into the night. Tera laughed, tipping back to keep from slipping into the open air. The soldier kept laughing too.

"Excuse me, what's so funny?" Weiss turned to glare at the helmetless Specialist, blue burning into blue. Tera just smiled back, rolling backward and popping up on her feet. "Well?"

Weiss stood, her hands curling into fists at her sides. Giggles nearly drove her to swing at Tera's pale jaw before she lunged forward. Weiss' eyes shot wide as Tera gripped both sides of her head and leaned close, placing her lips a mere inch from the heiress' own and placing the heiress on the very edge of the ledge.

"It's nothing, that was just the slowest," she leaned a hair closer, Weiss breath caught, "most roundabout way you could have admitted to fancying Red." Tera's giggles started up again as her captive turned bright red. With a twirl, Weiss was free and sinking to her knees; gulping down air to slow her hammering heart. _Snap. Snap_.

"I do not _fancy_ , my team leader." The bands across her back crawled, sending shivers through her. Weiss stayed perfectly still, _do not give him the satisfaction_. Tera didn't bother turning around before countering.

"Aw, admit it. You might not be disappointed in what you find." Weiss nails dug into her shoulders, the tingling got worse. Her lungs struggled to take in air as she bent.

"What's the issue, why so-Weiss? Weiss, look at me." _Snap. Snap_. The belt's sides cracked together. Tera slipped her fingers around Weiss' wrists. Tear filled eyes snapped to her. Tera gently unwound her arms, she didn't let go of her wrists. Blood stained nails shone in the moonlight.

"I-I can't like my team leader. I like my team leader but I can't. Not like that." Tera ushered the girl against her, poorly comforting the Schnee heiress. She held onto her as the sobs started and rubbed her back as the tremors threatened to break her apart. She carried Weiss down the tower and decided to take her back to the hub. Tera knew what it was like to show up to a team of strangers in the middle of a breakdown, she didn't want Weiss to experience that. Although, she also realized most teammates wouldn't react like Carmine. She hoped he wouldn't react too badly to her bringing the girl in. After another moment of thought, Tera also decided that she would go with Weiss back to her team in the morning. She could have a word with Yang and make sure she knew about the collapse at least, maybe convince her to make a few offhand remarks in favor of so called "alternative lifestyles".

All through that process though, one little voice wouldn't leave her alone. One little whisper. _Why do you care?_

* * *

"Why don't you care?" Ruby's voice was shrill.

"I do, just-" Yang glared down at her little sister, struggling to find the words to dissuade her.

"Then let me find her," Ruby staggered forward, Yang's palm stopped her. The bruised student nearly fell to the ground, Weiss' bedpost was luckily at hand. "Let me through."

"You can barely stand. Your aura is barely at 30%." Blake stepped between the two, her scroll outstretched. "Rest. Yang will stay with you, I'll go look for her."

Blake didn't leave until both of the sisters were sitting on the lower beds. She nodded to Yang and took one last glance at Ruby before setting off down the hall. Ruby's dark eyelids had already begun to droop, Blake was willing to wager she would be asleep within the hour. The faunus had no real want to search for Weiss, why would she? All the Schnee had done at first was bitch at all of them, then she had suddenly started tutoring Ruby and attempted be at least friendly with everyone. Blake did not consider Weiss a friend just because she was a teammate either, fighting together and socializing were very different.

Still, Blake did consider Yang and Ruby friends. They hadn't so much as flinched at the fact that she was a faunus, unlike Weiss who had practically scowled at her until she put on the ribbon, and had not questioned why she hid her heritage. They were genuinely nice people and the cat had met precious few like them in her years with the White Fang. No matter her own thoughts on the Schnee, Ruby wouldn't agree to take it easy until her partner was found and Blake couldn't have one of her new friends running herself ragged. It just wasn't the friendly thing to do.

As she reached the end of the hall, ears twitching and nose crinkling, Blake couldn't help but think it was good Ruby had worked herself up so badly before she agreed to help. With her aura still so low, the scythe wielder would be out in an hour at most. Blake sniffed once more before taking the stairs up, the slightest hint of Weiss' perfume leading her out to the roof. May as well see which way Weiss had gone.

Blake was shocked when quiet sobs reached her ears, she scanned the roof. With her night vision she could see every inch of the rooftop clear as day, she turned her ears to listen more closely. The crying was faint, not because the distressed was trying to be discreet but because they were far away. Blake's gaze snapped up to the top of the tower, Weiss was visible near the edge. A twinge of sympathy ran through the cat as she studied to distant heiress; she hadn't bothered to change out of her sparring outfit and, even from the rooftop, Blake could see how badly she was shaking. Blake managed to almost reach the base of the tower before she noticed the second figure. A hiss started to rise in her throat, black armor encompassed her teammate like an animate shadow.

Blake made her way away from the door, and light, before continuing her observation. Weiss actually seemed to be clinging to the killer, Blake sniffed. Tera, Tera was the death trooper with Weiss. _Why is she there?_ Blake had no idea. She watched in shock as the soldier attempted to comfort Weiss. Blake didn't like the situation. Why was a death trooper cradling her teammate? What did the killer expect in return for this? None of the answers presented themselves as the two on the tower seemed to gather themselves.

Blake's breath caught as Weiss stumbled along the edge, had Tera convinced her to jump? Her claws scraped along the base of the tower, she would have to get Weiss down before she did something they would all regret. The faunus was stopped a mere five feet off the ground by Tera ushering the unstable Schnee onto her back. _What the hell is going on?_ Blake darted back into the shadows and readied herself to tail the duo. Weiss, still on Tera's back, passed through the dormitory door and Blake lunged forward to follow.

She was stopped by both the door closing and another black clad figure stepping in front of it. Even with the scent blocker, she knew it was Eurig. Crouched in the tower's shadow, Blake wished she had brought Gambol Shroud. A quick shot and swing kick and the death trooper would be out of her way. Gambol Shroud was stashed in her locker, safe from her plots.

"Come on out kitkat, I don't always bite." his visor zeroed in on her. Blake huffed and stood upright. "Toupe always has been a bit oblivious."

"What's she doing with my teammate?" Blake stayed out of the light, Eurig pawed at the top of his helmet. Is he nervous?

"My guess would be bringing her back to our hub for Esme to sort out, maybe you should keep the heiress on a tighter leash." Eurig took a step closer. "I'm sure she'll be brought back in the morning."

"And if we want her now?" The masked faunus laughed. Blake crossed her arms.

"At least pretend to be serious." Blake sighed at the soldier. "Nothing bad will happen to her. With Tera shepherding her around, the little Schnee'll be safer than her sister after the Sonarus incident." Blake narrowed her eyes. She could almost hear Eurig's eyes roll.

"How do you know about that?" Again the soldier took a step closer. Blake stayed put.

"I was part of the clean up crew, how about you?" Blake leant against the tower. "Come on, cat got your tongue?"

"No one on that crew ever came back." Eurig tilted his head up.

"Let's use our heads Belladonna; if none of the idiots sent to finish off Winter returned, and the SDC didn't skin us and leave them for you all to find, and I have a new job; what happened?" Blake narrowed her eyes in response. "All that matters is we both got out. Two former White Fang assassins slumming it at Beacon."

"Then stop asking, it's over." Blake pushed off the stonework. Eurig caught her arm as she tried to pass.

"It will never be over. Keep that in mind Blake, a lot of us envied you. Now that you've left, all of them are free to hate you," he leaned close, "I'm dead or brainwashed. You're just a Schnee guarding traitor." She let Eurig disappear into the shadows and across the rooftops. She braced her forearms against the door, calming herself, before slowly returning to the dorm.

Just as she had thought, Ruby was dead asleep in Weiss' bed. Yang was still sitting on her bed, watching Ruby's chest rise and fall. Blake didn't bother shutting the door.

"So?" for once Yang sounded completely serious.

"Mystery students have her, one of them tried to keep me from following." Blake glanced into the hall, JNPR's door stayed shut. Though after a second of thought, Blake realized they were all probably still in the infirmary with Jaune. No one else lived on their floor despite there being a third room. Yang stood, she had donned her combat jacket and gauntlets.

"Can you find her?" Blake smiled as her partner stepped into the hall, she flicked off the light and shut the door behind her.

"Weiss isn't wearing scent blocker like them." The black and yellow pair set off down the hall, inching their way closer to the source of the scent.

* * *

Carmine paced the long sealed hangar, spartan desks and cots lining the far wall. He drummed his fingers over the evidence tables as he passed, briefly glancing at the assorted files and spreads to make sure they were all closed to the girl sitting on his cot. He did not spare her, or his irritating subordinate, a glance as he passed by for the thirteenth time. Likewise, neither Tera nor Weiss attempted to speak to him. His dreadlocks swung when he suddenly stopped, just to the left of Tera. He took a deep breath.

 _Crash_. He exhaled through his nose and turned to face the black and yellow forms in his doorway. Cold silver eyes met amber and lilac, Carmine swept his arm out before him.

"Seats are over here, sorry I wasn't expecting guests. I would have gotten more chairs." No one moved. Carmine drew the billhook from the plate across the small of his back. Belladonna tensed as he stepped a hair closer and buried the hooked blade in the table. The specialist noted Xiao Long's subtle nod, it was a steel table. He gave them a wide berth to join their distraught teammate. Carmine resumed his pacing, taking a deep breath as he marched right and expelling it as he marched left.

Eventually he stopped, once again just past Tera. Tension rolled off the cat, he made sure to grin at her. Xiao Long was, predictably, unfazed by the waiting or joyless smile painted across her host.

"It seems we all have something quite...personal to discuss." Tera made her first noise in half an hour, a long suffering sigh. Carmine's gaze shifted to her. It had been one hell of a day and the night wasn't looking much better.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Now we're getting somewhere! Alright, from this point forward the chapters should be between 5k and 7k(like this one). In accordance with that, I will also try to update this story once a week or week and a half at most. As always, reviews are always welcome. If you find any errors, have any questions, or just want to comment on how the story is progressing, please feel free to PM me or write a review. I would really like to hear from anybody reading this, especially if you think I'm doing something wrong; that way I can fix it early or (attmept) to assure you I have a plan for the issue.**


	5. Sense of Self

**Disclaimer: I own nothing involved with RWBY, that belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

Ruby awoke to an empty room. She groaned and opened her eyes, nothing changed. She sighed and rolled towards the edge of the bed, recoiling when she swung her feet onto the floor. Was she in bed with Weiss or Blake? A quick pat backwards revealed no one else was in bed with her, that was probably for the best. If the lingering ache in her neck and spectacular pulse behind her eyes were to be believed, she had suffered a seizure and scared the hell out her teammates. The sore girl sighed and put her feet back on the floor, reaching for her scroll as she stood.

4:13 A.M. glared white from the expanded screen. Ruby sighed and stood, no point trying to get back to sleep. Their first class of the day was at eight o'clock sharp, and Weiss liked to be early to everything. Ruby was glad she kept her clothes in pre-prepared bundles as she snuck them out of her drawer and crept into the dorm's bathroom; even if getting more sleep was pointless, she didn't want to disturb the others. Plus, this was the first time she had woken up before Weiss so she didn't have to use the communal shower. The lights hummed to life as her clothes dropped to the floor.

"Huh." Ruby was actually a little impressed by the damage Cardin had done. She leaned closer to the mirror, trying to figure out if the fading crescents under her eyes were connected to the bruising on her nose or were just black eyes. The thin contusions along her jaw were a little perplexing, she didn't remember Cardin grabbing her jaw; plus, his hands were way too big to leave such dainty marks. Ruby winced at the realization it was probably Weiss, she wouldn't have been the first to try and pry open her mouth during a seizure. She opened her mouth and sighed, there wasn't any blood or skin between her teeth.

Ruby continued to catalog her wounds; the bruise on her abdomen had already faded to a shadow, though the ones on her back had only molted to a sickly yellow. Pressing on the discolored flesh down the back of her ribs, Ruby was pleased to find no ridges on her bones. To have her ribs rebroken and properly set would not have been a good start to a Tuesday. With a hop, and wince as her still purple heels hit the tub, Ruby turned on the water.

Freezing droplets pounded into her shoulders. Cold showers had always been more her speed, perking her up and urging her to hurry up and get out. Yang was mortified by her sister's habit, one of their many differences. Really, Ruby had realized she shared very few traits with Yang and their father. Both of them loved spicy food, she couldn't stand it. Both of them had an affinity for anywhere hot, winter was her favorite season. Both of them had bright, blonde, Vacan hair; she was almost an exact copy of her mother. That didn't even begin to cover the completely different semblances the sisters had or their personalities. Besides a habit of charging into battle, they may as well have not been related.

Ruby shook her head under the stream of water, they were family regardless. Family was also why she planned to apologize to Yang whenever she woke up, she shouldn't have fought her over getting a little pill. Especially not when she actually needed the pill; despite the crash aura boost led to, the rapid regeneration it initially provided worked wonders for preventing semblance related seizures. _Eh, always next time,_ she mused as she lathered strawberry shampoo into her hair.

As she washed her hair and the rest of body, she flexed and stretched her muscles. After training that was always one of her favorite parts, moving around with a bunch of bruised and sore muscles. They caused just enough pain to release endorphins but not enough to actually bother Ruby, it felt great. After a half hour of scrubbing and enjoying the cold, Ruby twisted off the water.

She donned her uniform, sans ribbon and blazer, and rubbed her hair mostly dry. Ruby had always liked the maroon shade of her hair when it was damp more than the fade from jet black to blood red it usually had. That was the way her mother's hair had always been. That was really the only major difference between Ruby and her mother, her hair was darker. Ruby shook her head, four in the morning was too early to think so much. She checked the time again.

4:48 A.M., Ruby shrugged to herself, that was almost five. Weiss surely wouldn't mind waking up a little early. Flicking off the light and creeping back into the main dorm, Ruby climbed up to peek into her makeshift tent. If Weiss hadn't slept with her in the bottom bed, it only made sense she had slept in Ruby's bed. A glance, and pat down just to make sure, showed the bed was empty. Confused, Ruby checked Blake and Yang's beds. A spike of fear settled in her chest as she checked all of the beds, and the time, again. _Am I hallucinating?_ Ruby pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes and took a few deep breathes. She was fine. They had a reason for leaving, once she found them everything would clear up.

Ruby called Yang's scroll as she left the dorm, half running to the end of the hall. Her sister didn't pick up. A voice in the back of head, tiny and nearly inaudible, brought the fear rushing back through her. _What if they don't come back?_

* * *

Yang paid the buzzing in her pocket no mind as she stared down SLTE's leader. He stared back, ageless face and sterling eyes impassive.

"What the fuck is this?" she jabbed at the file with Pyrrha Nikos etched across it. Carmine sauntered to the designated file and handed it to the blonde girl. She flipped through it, searching for the blackmail notes that had to have been there. Carmine knew she wouldn't find them, all of the actual files had been stashed the second Tera arrived with the Schnee heiress. The dummy file Yang held only had Nikos' tournament transcripts and a few edited notes concerning her fighting style and semblance.

"It's just a little study guide, my people and I like to keep records of possible...challenges." Carmine ran his fingers through his red dreads, he had been trying to get rid of the Xiao Long girl for nearly four hours. He had almost succeed too, she had made it to the door before demanding they return Schnee to them. Of course, Tera jumped in and refused to give the girl up until Esme checked her over; that had led to a rather unfortunate line of questioning from Belladonna and Carmine had discreetly forbidden his green haired partner from returning until all of the guests were gone. Still, Tera had not dropped the issue and handed over the girl, who had fallen asleep by this point. No, Tera had instead insisted they just wait for Esme and Carmine was suddenly stuck with four very annoying girls. Testament to that fact, Xiao Long did not look particularly pleased with his explanation of the file. In fact, if her glare was anything to go by, he had just extended her stay. _I never did like working with children._

"I want the ones on my team. Now." Carmine grinned at her. This was his out.

"I'm sorry," he turned his back, "but we only keep files on those actually capable of challenging us. After the matches last night, I might just have to add one on Cardin."

He could feel the heat pulsing off of her, his arms crossed. This was great. She had the temper of a starved Grimm.

"It really was impressive how he tore apart your sister and the Schnee, almost inspiring." His eyes glittered as he turned to her, teeth bared in a wide smile, "Though he was a bit too nice at the end. Really, why not just go ahead and finish the job? One or two more good whacks would have done it too."

Yang lunged, eyes blazing. One second she was in the air with a fist cocked back, the next she was stumbling back. Carmine shimmered before her, like his aura had fallen and come back. She could feel a bruise simultaneously forming and healing at the base of her ribs, her aura was full. How the hell had bruised her? Why hadn't she burned him? His chamber foot was clad in a pristine boot. Yang readied to charge him again, it didn't matter if he got a lucky shot in. _Buzz. Buzz._ Xiao Long dropped her hands as her pocket vibrated again. His boot clacked against the steel floor as his opponent turned her back and answered the scroll. The specialist silently sighed, thank the Grimm for whoever called her. He had kicked her full force, through her aura, and she staggered back a few steps. _Maybe riling up the most combative of the annoyances was a bad idea._

Carmine very seriously considered snatching up his billhook and slitting her throat. It would work too. Head to head and hand to hand, he wasn't sure he would win; using his semblance and with a machete, he knew he would win. If he killed her it would guarantee this never happened again, teach Tera not to bring in stray students, and give him the satisfaction of slaughtering the headstrong bitch. There was no downside to Yang's death. Glancing to the bow wearing faunus, he scrapped the plan; there was no way the panther would go as quickly and there was a high chance she would escape. Faunus were always a bitch to put down.

The panther was an object of confusion for the specialist. She had obviously led Xiao Long to the hub yet had barely said ten words in all the time she'd been there. All she did was sit down next to the dazed, and tear stained, Schnee and rub her back. He had seen her whisper to the girl a few times but otherwise stayed out of the arguments. Why was she there?

"Ruby's awake," the blonde gave Carmine a dirty look but did not try to strike him on her way to her teammates. "Can we have our heiress back now?"

Now, it was Carmine giving Tera a dirty look. After meeting her superior's gaze, she made the right choice.

"Yea, I'm sorry about all this," she moved over so Xiao Long could pick up her white haired teammate, "just try and find me in the next day or two so I can talk to her." The brawler made a noise somewhere between a scoff and a laugh, the panther solemnly nodded. Tera showed them to the door. The second it was shut, Carmine sat and looked at Tera with a blank face.

"It took you five hours to just hand off the little bitch?" Carmine sighed. Why couldn't all of them be like Esme? She barely ever made a noise, let alone talked or randomly collected students like stray cats.

"Don't blame me, you're the one who told Esme and Eurig to stay away." Tera glared at him. He kept her gaze as she marched to her cot and laid down. He would let her sleep for now, the longer she waited to deal with him the worse the consequences would be.

"We will be speaking about this later." He began setting out all of the stowed away files. His job was easier when he could just shoot anyone who compromised the hub, but of course command had set them to a school. Not just a school but one where they were forced to attend class and fight children, that would change. Ozpin had better have had a damn good argument for it.

* * *

 _Where are they?_ Ruby dialed Yang again. Again her sister failed to answer. A low whine escaped her as she fought the impulse to throw her scroll into the wall, she instead slammed both of her fists against it. They slammed down again as fear constricted her lungs. Ruby whined again and slid down the wall, panting and closing her eyes to try and regain some semblance of control. The cold fear did not relent. _I know they're coming back_ , saying it in her head didn't help. Justifying why they would all come back any minute did nothing for the girl as she buried her head in her hands and tucked her knees to her chest, trying to escape from the awful fear. _Please don't leave me. Please._

"Ruby?" tear filled eyes snapped to Ren, eyebrows knit with concern.

"Hey Ren." Ruby smiled and tried to sound cheery but her voice wavering and the tears in her eyes ruined the illusion. She wiped away the few tears that had escaped with the back of her hand. Ren helped her up.

"Where's Yang?" looking down at the girl, he quickly added, "she has some of my notes."

Ruby grinned again, this one even less convincing, "Oh, she's...she's- I don't know."

Ren ushered her towards JNPR's dorm, right across from her own, as her shoulder's slumped. A glance at Nora and little red was staring perplexed at the rapidly speaking Valkyrie. Glances to Pyrrha and Jaune made sure they wouldn't interrupt either, Ren had mastered glaring long ago. It also helped that only he and Nora were fully dressed, with Pyrrha still buttoning her shirt and Jaune slinking into the dorm's bathroom in his underwear.

"Yang?" he whispered with his back turned.

"Uh, hey Ren. Is this about-" Yang knew her sister was freaking out, the three missed calls said it all.

"She's awake. Nora's keeping her occupied," Ren risked a peek over his shoulder to see Ruby was chattering back, a genuine little smile across her lips. "You owe me for this one."

"I do, I do," both of them chuckled before Ren hung up. Pyrrha stared as he turned, again he met her eyes and tipped his head a bit to the side. She nodded and grabbed Jaune the second he came out of the bathroom.

"We're going to go on down to breakfast, right Jaune?" the Arc boy's eyes widened comically and he gulped before speaking, but managed a strong,

"Sure." Ren watched them leave, knowing he would have quite a few questions to answer later. Those were for later though, for now it was just him, Nora, and Ruby. Why had her teammates left her alone, with apparently no way to find them?

More specifically, why had Yang left her? Ren and Nora knew Ruby's phobia of being abandoned, most of Signal knew. During one of the school's micro-expeditions into Patch's woods, Ruby's teammates had decided to prank her by hiding in the woods. They had expected her to look for them, and one boy was very annoyed when she shut down and just hugged herself like she had when Ren found her in the hall. Unlike in the hallway, the boy had tried to scare her. Ruby had almost cut him in half, screaming the whole time about Grimm coming for her. Ren had helped Yang watch after her sister after that incident, that was why he had gone into the hall when she beat on the wall.

Watching the youngest student, who Nora had roped into a game of patty cake, he focused on her aura. It shimmered for the second he was able to view it, waving like the wind had it. Ren blinked and tried again but only ended up blurring his vision, more blinking set it right. Viewing others' aura was a skill he had tried and failed to master for years. A knock at the door cut his observation short.

Ruby threw open the door and dove into her sister's arms. Over her shoulder, Ren could see that Yang was exhausted. Dark circles ringed her eyes and, though she hugged her sister back, her shoulders were slumped. Yang met his stare.

"Mind waiting a few more minutes for Weiss?" Ren nodded to his old friend as she released her sister. "Thanks Ren."

Ren just nodded again.

Ten minutes later, Weiss and Ruby and Ren and Nora made their way to the cafeteria. Ruby and Nora practically skipped down the hall, Weiss trudged along, and Ren followed behind them. He couldn't shake the feeling that this would be the beginning of an interesting adventure.

* * *

The six students at RWBY's habitual table were oddly silent. Normally the table was alive with conversation, all eight members of RWBY and JNPR discussing their classes and random bits of Beacon gossip. This morning, with only six of their regulars and yesterday's fight still in everyone's head, they said nothing. Ruby and Nora had immediately begun filling their plates; Ruby because her aura was still recovering, Nora because of her semblance. Her strength was not free. Ren, Pyrrha, and Jaune managed to have an argument using only nods, glances, and tips of the head. It seemed Ren would be explaining the morning's events sooner rather than later. Weiss just stared at the table.

Every minute or so, Ruby would glance at her. She was worried about her partner. Weiss hadn't so much as touched her plate, let alone eaten anything; if the poorly concealed bags under her eyes were any indication, she hadn't slept very well or very long either. Was it because of the seizure? Ruby believed it to be, most were disturbed by them. It didn't help that the last thing she remembered before waking up to Yang and Blake argueing was being alone with Weiss. That wasn't all that bothered, no she still didn't know where the rest of her team had gone.

Ruby did not have a chance to ask through the day either. Though the next round of preliminary matches wasn't until Wednesday, they still had lectures well into the afternoon. Weiss mood did not improve as the day dragged on, if anything it worsened. The only active members of Ruby managed to sit together through Port's lecture, albeit Weiss refused to look at Ruby's bruised face. By the third class of the day, history with Oobleck, Weiss refused to sit by or acknowledge her partner at all. She completely disappeared during lunch, leaving Ruby to again eat in silence with JNPR. After lunch they only had Goodwitch's combat class, where they watched the previous day's matches and pointed out flaws in the combatants strategies. That was also the class in which Weiss showed the most emotion, staring down Cardin for the entire hour. Ruby was also encouraged by Weiss sitting next to her, in a Yang like show of boldness she had even tried to take her partner's hand to calm her. That had nearly sent her scrambling out of her chair and brought her glare to Ruby. Suffice to say, Weiss was left alone until the end of class.

Weiss also seemed intent to be left alone after class too, Ruby almost had to use her semblance to keep up as her partner wove through the post class crowds. Despite small size of the first year class, there were actually close to 300 students. Transfers were allowed from the second year on, which allowed Beacon to bolster its numbers and allowed students likely to fail the initiation to attend after proving themselves capable at another academy. The ten, or in Ruby's class' case eleven, original teams were almost always the best in their year though.

Eventually, Weiss did stop. She had wanted to be alone and remembered the terrace she found Port on as a reasonably desolate place. That expectation was why she nearly jumped out of her skin when Ruby practically yelled her name.

"Weiss!" Ruby shrunk away from her glare, Weiss was quick to soften her gaze. Her heart twinged at the mottled bruises under her partner's eyes and across the bridge of her nose. Why hadn't she just raised the glyph and eliminated Ruby from the match?

"I'm-quit...go away Ruby." She refused to look at her partner, locking her gaze on her shoes instead.

"Weiss," the older girl's teeth clacked together, "just tell me what's wrong. I can help."

For a moment the two studied each other, worried gray boring into dark ringed cobalt. Ruby inched closer, a hand outstretched. For a moment Weiss might have let the hand close over her shoulder and she would have told the cloaked girl everything. Her memory ruined that chance; a girl, a kiss, and a belt flashed by. Weiss jerked her shoulder out of reach and almost stumbled as she backed away, it was all she could do not to show her partner how afraid she was, how tempted she was. Those who intended to follow the rules had no reason to fear them.

With Ruby biting her own lip and looking for all the world like a kicked puppy, Weiss wanted nothing more than to break her father's rule and take the younger girl into her arms. Habit prevented her from doing that but did little to lessen the longing, the need, for contact. The Schnee couldn't remember the last time she had genuinely hugged someone, let alone kissed. _Snap, Snap_. Her hands started shaking, Ruby noticed.

"Just-just go away, leave me alone." Weiss glared daggers and crossed her arms, embarrassment threatening to steal away what little control she had. Ruby did not leave but she did not step forward either, blind to the fragility of her partner. Weiss doubted she would be able to keep from opening up to her if Ruby just took a step forward. _Snap, snap_. Weiss turned and ran out of the dorm, not bothering to shut the door.

To no one's surprise she ended up on the roof and in front of the spire. Instead of climbing it though, Weiss punched the rough stone. She hit it again and again, muted screams drowning out the steady scrape of skin on stone; her knuckles were bloody and purpling by the time she was done.

"Why can't all of you just leave me alone!" her voice cracked as she sunk to her knees in front of the blood stained spire. Long white hair obscured her face as she whispered it again. Why couldn't her family just go, abandon the disappointment to their name? That was all they had ever considered her. When she was the tiny second daughter, fit only to be shipped off to a Huntsman academy or sold in some political marriage, life had been more tolerable. Her father had never been warm or particularly fatherly, but he had tolerated her. He didn't question her first girlfriend, only required that the relationship be kept secret. After she became the heir, after Winter's accident, that had changed. Weiss had been labeled as wrong then, an affront to both her family and high society. Suddenly it was a crime to be herself.

Her father had been unrelenting in his attempts to break her, and Weiss couldn't say he had been entirely unsuccessful. Hell, she was knelt on a roof because she thought of breaking the rules. A sad smile turned her lips as she admitted to herself this was not her worst reaction; sure her knuckles her skinned, but they wouldn't scar and would be good as new in the morning. Other outbursts had left lasting marks, Weiss didn't wear long sleeves all the time because she was cold. Sleeves hid who she was just as her attitude had the first week. Weiss rolled up her sleeve.

Glancing at the smeared makeup on her wrist, a thick band of scar tissue hidden beneath, Weiss leaned into the stone and closed her eyes. That mark was testament to how far she had been willing to go to escape her father's hold and that mark was a testament to her failure. There she was, curled up against a spire half a world away and still trying to please her family. Her nail pressed over the scar.

Weiss knew what she would do. She was already the family failure, just how much worse could being herself at Beacon make her life?

* * *

"If only I was a gossip." Ren sighed as he left the dorm, Pyrrha and Jaune needed to learn to go with the flow or at least ask fewer questions. Pyrrha hadn't had an issue with him taking Ruby in, Jaune had begged him to give a warning next time, but both of them had wanted to know why. "I went to school with her sister" had been too vague of an answer for their liking, and Ren wasn't about to tell them about Ruby's history of seizures or Yang's apparent confrontation with team SLTE. He liked his teammates but they were a bit loose lipped when it came to gossip. Fleeing to the third floor balcony was his only escape from their questioning, it was either that or knocking both of them out. Thankfully, Ren saw he would not be lonely on the communal balcony.

"I can see your attendance hasn't gotten any better, pretty impressive considering you live here." Yang smiled as Ren joined her on the railing.

"Come on, my dad taught at Signal. That has to count for something." She turned to face her longtime classmate. "Anyone else notice I took the day off?"

"Ruby covered for you, told the teachers you were up all night making sure she didn't have a seizure." Ren rested his elbows on the wrought iron. "Weiss backed her up."

Yang nodded and sighed. "Sounds like Ruby. When did you all get back to your dorm anyway?"

"They let Jaune leave around midnight, you could have sent Ruby over if you needed to leave. Nora's always up for a sleepover. Did you go booby trap CDRL's room or something this morning?" Ren and Nora were the only other two at Beacon who knew about Ruby's past seizures. They also knew about her issue with being left alone, Yang knew she should have called one of them to watch Ruby but she hadn't planned on being gone all night.

"Not exactly," she grinned at his raised eyebrows, "I can actually control myself a little now. For the most part. I won't beat him bloody...unless it's sparring, then Winchester's dead."

"Of course," Ren laughed, "perfectly reasonable."

They lapsed into silence, Ren studying the sky and Yang studying Ren. In the fading sunlight his neon pink eyes seemed to softly glow, as did the single band of pink hair in front of his left ear. His Vacan tailcoat seemed darker than normal, ready to blend into the shade. With a foot braced to the banister's rails and hands clasped in a loose fist, Ren looked relaxed. Yang knew Ren was primed to push off the rail and bring his hands down on someone's head, she was too. He was just less obvious about it.

"So, what do you think of team SLTE?" Ren turned back towards her. He shrugged, shaking the spiky hair on his shoulders.

"They're odd and disturbingly obsessed with masks. What did they do?" Yang sighed, Ren was a friend.

"I was wondering around last night after Ruby's fit and I found Carmine in an abandoned hangar. He had files on students, one on Pyrrha." Even friends didn't need to know everything, Weiss and Blake's involvement could stay a team secret. To his credit, Ren didn't ask about why neither of her teammates had been with Ruby.

"Know why he's getting info on students?" Yang shook her head, no.

"There's a storm coming." Ren smiled at her. They could handle a storm, though he wasn't sure if he could take her ominous, cliched phrasing.

"Don't be so dramat-" A lonely roll of thunder boomed across the sky, right on time. Ren glanced at the sky with narrowed eyes, of course a literal storm would roll in for Yang.

"They're planning something, they're here for a reason." Ren fully stood as Yang rolled her shoulders and started back down the hall. "We just need to find out what it is."

* * *

"I just lost fifty lien. Esme was right, the Arc boy was a fraud. Nikos doesn't seem to mind though, she's training him." Eurig's voice crackled through the comm piece on Carmine's table, balanced over the hole his billhook had carved that morning.

"Expected, do you have the training schedule down?" Carmine added the intel to both of the target files.

"Of course, why else would I be sneaking across a buttress in the fucking rain?" Eurig growled through the mic, his leader just chuckled. The lion never had learned to hold his tongue.

"Expected. If you catch them doing anything other than training, record it for blackmail." Carmine clicked off the ear piece, Eurig could handle himself.

"Should I mark the kid as a potential bargaining chip? In case Command sees the need to 'appropriate' Nikos' skills?" Tera looked up from her own files. It was a stupid question and they both knew it, but Tera was the newest member of the squad and entitled to such a luxury. She had been using that as her go too excuse for the past two years at least, Carmine usually humored her..

"Put him down as a strong possibility, we can update it as Eurig gathers evidence." Carmine returned his gaze to the files, scribbling notes in the margins. Tera cleared her throat. Carmine's pen stopped scratching.

"I would like to take over all surveillance and reporting on the Schnee heiress." Tera's jaw tightened as Carmine scoffed and continued his notes. She waited until he was done and had shut the file before continuing, "I've made a rapport with both her and Red, they're beginning to trust me as a friend."

"That is exactly why I'm denying the transfer." Carmine turned to face her, "Esme is doing a fine job. They haven't even seen her." Esme was the only one of his squadmates who legitimately worried Carmine; her ability to be ignored, more accurately forgotten, was disturbing to observe. Thankfully, she was also loyal as a hound; it was almost like no one ever told the poor girl not to trust strangers.

"My reputation with them-" Carmine's glare silenced her. The morning's catastrophe had shown him just what her relationship with the partners would lead to.

"Your reputation with them is a mistake. What exactly were you thinking, Toupe? Bringing the Schnee here in the middle of the night, in the middle of a panic attack no less. What if I hadn't been alone here? If Esme and I were checking our notes or Eurig returned from his rounds to do the same?" His eyes were molten silver. Tera ignored the pressure behind her eyes and looked away from Carmine. Her headache immediately lessened.

"That didn't happen. Everything worked out, Schnee didn't break and her team got a reason to all work through their issues." Carmine rose, returning his file to its rightful place.

"And we lost five hours to get them to that point." Tera shut her file, the report half finished. Carmine's glare trailed from her wandering eyes to the folder and back again. "They are tools for command and the mission. We cannot afford to make them more."

"They aren't spades or rifles. They're people. They have wants and memories and issues-" Carmine couldn't fathom how Tera maintained her naive want to randomly help people, being an assassin had a certain way of weeding that trait out. Then again, the girl was an empath so it made sense she would want to keep those around her in a good mood for her own sake.

"Which we are not hired to deal with. We have our job. We have our cover, which again your little stunt put in jeopardy."

"We have a chance here. They think of us as friends, real friends, not just tools." Carmine carded his hands through his hair. Tera did not back down. "When was the last time any of us had that? It's like having a family again."

"Tera, we cannot befriend these children. They are not killers. They are not soldiers. In a few months, command will have decided a course of action, we will have carried it out, and all of them will be reflections in a bullhead's hull." Well, a fair amount of them could also end up dead but there was no reason to plan on killing them, most of Beacon's students would make great operatives if they could snatch them. Carmine pressed on the bridge of his nose, sometimes it was difficult to keep his jobs separate. "Do not do this."

"We could do more good with them helping us." Tera finally met his eyes again, he smirked. _You think we're the good guys?_ She flinched as the pressure returned to her mind, Carmine glanced away after a moment.

He walked to the door. "Do not interact with them again."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Reviews are always welcome. If you find any errors, have any questions, or just want to comment on how the story is progressing, please feel free to PM me or write a review. I would really like to hear from anybody reading this, especially if you think I'm doing something wrong; that way I can fix it early.**


	6. Fight Night

**Disclaimer: I own nothing involved with RWBY, that belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

"If it comes up though, I'm killing him." No one reacted to Yang's threat, she had been repeating it since Tuesday night. Now that they were dressed and doing final weapon checks on Friday, it seemed more a silence filler than anything.

"I just want to fight! Sweetheart's been sitting in a locker too long." Similarly none of Ruby's teammates paid her hugging the folded scythe any mind. Wednesday had been the last hand to hand sparring session, teams CRDL and RWBY had been kept away from each other. Four days was far too long to wait for revenge.

"You have to admit, CRDL has it coming." Blake didn't look up from Gambol Shroud, the sheathe needed to be sharpened a bit. She loaded the main pistol and blade and put the sheathe on her back.

"He stuffed Jaune in a locker and launched him into Vale during lunch!" Ruby bounced, her spare magazines stayed on her belt. "And did you see the black eye he had yesterday morning? Someone needs to put Cardin in his place."

"You would think he would have learned to avoid Cardin by now." Weiss shrugged and shut her locker. She flexed her hands, the skin across her knuckles felt too tight after her impromptu boxing match with the spire. None of her teammates had asked about the scrapes.

"He isn't exactly...observant, and Cardin is always looking for someone to pick on." Blake too closed her locker, Yang followed suit.

"But Jaune has a Nora and a Pyrrha on his team, why doesn't he just ask them for help?" The other three shrugged at Ruby, she had a point.

"Alright, alright, more reasons to kick the shit out of the ginger." Yang cracked her knuckles for emphasis. With that RWBY left the locker room and took their place beside Pyrrha and Ren, the teams mumbling greetings as they waited for Jaune and Nora. Jaune was the last to exit the locker room, Crocea Mors hanging loosely at his side. He spoke to no one, choosing to lean against the raised ramp instead. Ruby watched Pyrrha's face fall, the crimson headed Mistralian tried to smile when she noticed Ruby's appraisal. Goodwitch snapped her crop.

"This will be the final preliminary, and as promised is a teams only night. As such all of you will be fighting multiple times and you will be eliminated if your aura drops below fifty the first match, and twenty the next. You will have next week off to prepare and rankings will begin that monday." Ruby and Yang were the loudest of the students who cheered, CRDL didn't stand a chance. "Onto the first match."

The matchmaker had other plans though, RWBY's faces and four question marks rolled onto the screen. Yang and Blake shared a glance, it was time to see just how far they could push the enigmas. Yang also had not forgotten Carmine's taunts.

RWBY stood in a loose diamond; Ruby ready to charge with Yang and Blake flanking her, Weiss would hang back and support her team with glyphs. Team SLTE stood in a tight box formation; Ruby guessed they would hunker down like they had against the Nevermore, sticking close together and making sure no one member came under too much pressure. Though a change in strategy wouldn't have really surprised her, they all actually had their weapons this time.

Carmine's katana sheath still had one empty slot, though white and black dust blades and an extra hilt had been attached to the mess. She briefly wondered how well he could dual wield the long swords; despite her own weapon of choice, Ruby could recognize when a weapon dipped from specialized to unwieldy. Tera held what appeared to be a light machine gun with an oversized halberd head running the length of the barrel. For a second Ruby didn't notice Eurig's weapon, it just looked like he had different colored gloves. Then she noticed the emerald flash of a gale crystal in his right palm, the fingers of the gloves ended in half inch claws. The almost mute Esme had strapped dozens of kunai to her hips and biceps and had even more strung across her chest. She worried Ruby, a rainbow of crystals glowed in the hilt of her blades. The match bell rang.

The three girls charged their opponents just as Carmine boosted Esme into the air, red and blue pommeled daggers flew at the chargers. Just as Ruby spun her scythe to deflect them, the kunai detonated. Steam blinded Ruby but she did not break her charge. She stumbled for a few steps, but the mix of fire and ice dust prevented any real damage. A glyph from her unseen partner blew her clear of the fog, straight into the sprinting Carmine. He vaulted over her, Ruby turned to block the slash that was no doubt rushing towards her defenseless back. She stumbled into empty air. For a second she was confused, then she glanced through the dissipating steam; Carmine was headed straight for Weiss. A sudden burst of gunfire kept Ruby from rushing to her partner's aid, Tera had flanked her in the chaos. Crescent Rose blurred around the redhead as she deflected the dust rounds. Ruby wove through the rounds, confident she could avoid the shots. Tera didn't even stop firing while dodging the scythe, forcing Ruby to pull back after two near misses.

Ruby noticed with some apprehension that the light machine gun's box magazine ran along its entire left side. Tera stopped firing as the gun's barrel glowed. Ruby lunged, metal shrieked on metal. A pull of the trigger and Ruby forced Tera back, spinning with the recoil to immediately strike again. Similarly, Tera gripped her gun by the end of the oddly short stock and let its weight guide her movements. Weaving over and under each other's oversized blades and knocking each other back with clashes, the two seemed evenly matched. Then Ruby activated her semblance. The haft of Crescent Rose cracked the girl's visor, the blade sent her to the ground. Ruby sprinted past, intent to help her partner against Carmine but was stopped by a dozen rounds kicking up dust around her. While the rounds stopped her from going forward, they did not steal away her momentum so she ended up sliding on the floor to slow herself. Ruby regained control and whirled around, a shell flying towards the specialist. The scythe wielder skidded further back with another pull of the trigger, Tera was launched off her feet by the double tap. Again, Ruby rushed forward with her semblance and this time Tera couldn't defend herself. Slash, slash, the buzzer rang. Ruby glanced at the aura gauge, panting. She was down to eighty one, a few of Tera's rounds had slipped through and her semblance was still costly.

Glyphs were even more costly. Weiss had dropped to sixty five and her opponent did not not help the situation. Carmine was relentless. She cursed to herself as the samurai slashed for her head. A duck and lunge brought her too close for him to slash, he just leaned away from her rapier and lashed out with a kick. She didn't notice his aura drop by three points or that hers remained at sixty five. She did notice a slight give in her side when she hit the ground, half way across the arena. An ice wall gave Weiss a moment to gather herself and focus a bit of aura on her at best cracked rib. Her healing was interrupted by a glowing red blade plunging through the ice beside her head. Weiss winced but rolled away from the wall and jetted back with a glyph. Carmine cocked his head to the side and raised his katana. Weiss smirked, Ruby's scythe gleamed over his shoulder. The katana flared.

All Carmine had to do was spin and both of his opponents were engulfed in flame, the edge of the dust blade crumbling away from the display. All Ruby could do was cover her face and dive through, it was too late to wrap herself in her cape. Weiss launched herself above the wall of fire only to have Carmine throw the remains of his blade at her; her eyes widened as the red light engulfed her. Smoke and flame washed over the arena, only Goodwitch's intervention kept the blast from taking the stands too.

Ruby's ears rang as she rose to her knees, a dull roar sounded behind her. She had to squint against the arena's tilting but still saw Yang wailing on a dazed Eurig. The blast had worked as a supercharge for her semblance, but dropped her aura to fifty one. Her hair glowed and eyes burned crimson, the lion was eliminated within ten seconds. Blake and Esme were sluggish in their movements; her teamate due to a vivid burn on her leg, the quiet specialist looked distracted. Ruby staggered to her feet, looking for the last samurai. Instead she found her partner.

The heiress lay half way across the arena, deathly still. Her clothes were covered in soot, even her hair had taken on a grey cast. Her face and hands were flecked with bright burns. Ruby stumbled a bit as she neared her, Weiss wasn't unconscious. No, now that she was almost close enough to touch Ruby could see that the heiress was very much awake. Her eyes were open the tiniest bit and her teeth were clenched together, every breath caused her to twitch just enough that Ruby knew she was awake. Awake and in pain. She was at her side in seconds, lurking Carmine be damned.

"Weiss," Ruby put her hand on her teammate's side to let her know she was there, "can you hear me?"

Her eyelids fluttered a bit but she did not answer the redhead, something warm seeped under Ruby's hand. She pulled back from the fluid, gaze snapping to her hand. It was covered in blood. Another glance at Weiss showed her arms tightly folded across her chest and a steadily spreading patch of red. Ruby gently tried to lift one of Weiss' arms, to see the damage, Weiss wouldn't budge.

"Help." It came out as barely a whisper, Ruby gulped. "Help!"

The match bell rang as Ruby yelled again, "Help!"

Across the arena Blake and Yang froze in their assault, locking eyes and sprinting straight to their teammates. Goodwitch beat them to the duo, her scroll raised and medics on the way. She snapped her scroll closed and pushed the students away, trying to stabilize the Schnee until the medics arrived. Her friends and teammates were horrified, her jacket's side was soaked through.

At the edge of the arena, Carmine leaned back. His blade sheathed and arms crossed, he didn't watch the mess he had caused. He only had eyes for the black armored girl on the opposite edge of the arena, the girl he knew could see what he felt. They both knew he was smiling behind the mask, black and purple bleeding through the seals of his armor for Tera. She understood exactly what the fight meant. _Disobey and they will pay_.

* * *

It was midnight before Ruby left Weiss side. The antiseptic stench and silence of the infirmary had driven her away; despite losing quite a bit of blood and almost having her lungs punctured by dust shards, Weiss would be fine. That hadn't kept Ruby from sitting by her for over three hours, alone with the unconscious heiress and her aura monitor. For three hours she sat listening to her partner breathe and a machine beep. _In. Out. Beep. In. Out. Beep. In. Out. Beep._

It was maddening. The rhythmic beat haunted her thoughts even as she walked away from the infirmary. That, coupled with ample time to playback Carmine launching his blade at her partner, led Ruby to her current destination. The first year gym flared to life as she marched through the door, she went straight to the changing room. Again the lights attempted to blind her, Ruby just threw open the first locker and kicked off her shoes. Her cincher and skirt were next, and after a second of thought peeled off her dust weave shirt. Ruby rolled her shoulders, savoring the weightlessness that always settled over her after taking off dust weave. While it provided superior protection to cloth and, due to the haste glyph woven into the fabric, allowed her to use her semblance without exhausting her aura, it also made her feel like there was a net wrapped around her. Dust weave worked by threading the wearer's aura through the clothing in symbols similar to the glyphs Weiss could summon and holding the charge for later use, which felt exceedingly odd to someone trained to feel aura. She cracked her neck and went back to the training room.

Ruby stopped in the doorway, she hadn't closed the gym door. A creak brought her glare to the punching bags and the feline faunus leaning beside them. Ruby set her jaw, had Eurig known Carmine planned to kill them?

"Fancy meeting you here Red." The specialist raised his eyebrows and gestured mats on the other side of the room. "Care to go a couple rounds?"

Ruby was halfway to the mats before she realized the lion didn't have his helmet on, or any of his armor. He looked like any of the other first years though the black cargo pants and matching t-shirt would have made him stand out in a crowd. Eurig's features were sharper than she had expected too, he really did take after a lion. Ruby was briefly entranced by the patchwork of scars that curled around his jaw, down his neck, and beneath his shirt. _Maybe they wear the armor all the time for a reason_.

"What're we going to?" The lion smirked.

"How about a little game? No semblances or really mean hits, just a friendly game." Ruby nodded and lined up across from the specialist. "First one of us to get the other on the ground gets to ask anything?" Again Ruby nodded.

"Was Carmine trying to kill Weiss?" Eurig smirked up at her, he had expected a countdown or something more than a nod before the redhead tripped him.

"No." Eurig's smirk dropped, "If he was trying, your friend would be dead."

"If her aura hadn't been in the fifties, the blast would have killed her." Ruby bit the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming at the faunus.

"It didn't. My boss is a sadistic asshole but he's a smart, sadistic asshole."

"Why would h-" Eurig hip tossed the distracted student. Ruby glared at him as he extended a hand. _Forget Carmine, forget the day. Knock the cat on his ass._ She took a deep breath, she could manage that.

"Remember the rules." They circled each other. "Are you and Blondie sisters?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow but nodded.

"Why do you all look-" Eurig was silenced by having his leg kicked out and a heel to the abdomen toppling him.

"Remember the rules," Ruby grinned down at the lion, Eurig shook his head and took her hand. "Did you know Blake before coming here?"

"In a sense. We were both involved in a faunus rights group." He tapped her fist, sending the jab over his shoulder instead of into his nose. Ruby bounced away.

"Like the ones that picket places?" Eurig smirked and decided to let that one slide.

"Not exactly." Ruby still looked like she wanted to ask more but stayed quiet, Eurig lunged. She hopped over his kick and batted away both of his hands, a retaliatory kick swiped at his head. The lion ducked and delivered a roundhouse to her side. Ruby stumbled but didn't fall, scampering away from his follow up strike. Eurig followed, a jab flying forward. Ruby wove around the blow, letting his hand graze her shoulder as she slammed a fist into his ribs. A second hook to his ribs stunned him long enough for Ruby to snake her leg behind his and grip his shoulders. Unexpectedly though, the lion wrapped his arms around her shoulders as she pushed him over her hip, dragging them both onto the mat. Eurig landed on top, forearms braced on either side of the petite girl's head. They stayed like that for a moment, panting and leg tangled together, then Ruby realized how it would look if anyone walked in. The lion rolled off of her laughing as her face almost glowed from her sudden blush.

"Stronger than you look Red, looks like we both get a question this time." Eurig settled against the mats beside Ruby, "You can go first."

"Um...do you like Blake?" Eurig raised his eyebrows and smirked. "You two just look at each other a lot and you said you kinda knew her and-and…" He held in chuckles as the redhead's rambling tapered off. He shrugged.

"I think we understand each other more than most, and she is beautiful. I'm just not sure either of us would be into doing anything too...serious. On that note, how about you and the princess? You into her?" Though it didn't seem possible, Ruby got redder.

"Um-uh...No? Maybe. Yes." She covered her face with her arms, Eurig rolled along the mats laughing. Eventually the lion calmed down and Ruby regained most of her usual pallor, though her ears were still red when Eurig stood and offered his hand.

"So, go again?" Ruby grinned as he pulled her up.

"Sure." The game began again, both members of team SLTE and RWBY smiling.

* * *

No one smiled in Weiss room, not the fitfully sleeping student or the blank faced specialist. Tera sighed as her eyes roved over the Schnee, appraising the damage her squad leader had done. Dark ringed eyelids in a burn dappled face were all that stared back. Light as a feather Tera pulled the collar of the hospital gown away from Weiss, frowning at the tight bandages around her chest. She knew they would be removed in the morning and within a week or two the Schnee would just have a coin sized scar to remind her of the attack, but for the night she was unconscious with a bound chest. It was all Tera's fault too.

She silently scoffed and stepped away from Weiss, she wasn't the one who threw an unstable dust blade at an already weakened girl. She was the reason Carmine had thrown the blade though. Her punishment nearly resulted in Weiss' death. That was the way everything in their order worked, that was the Ferrus Corporation. Someone else always paid the price. Tera sighed, it didn't matter.

There would be no official punishment for the attack. On the Beacon front the incident was officially an accident; ' _It was instinct professor, my training took over and I automatically sought to eliminate the nearest threat. I will control myself better in the future_ ', Goodwitch hadn't seemed happy with her leader's excuse but accepted it none the less. She couldn't have enforced any punishment to Carmine anyway, none of them were actually students. On the Corporation front, no one cared; the Ferrus Corporation, originally the Ferric Order, was very loosely organized. There was no oversight, no real enforcing body, just cells of rogue huntsmen and the like. There had been a time when they were a rigidly disciplined network of mercenaries and assassins and politicians for hire, then they had gotten involved with some Far Northern cult and all but collapsed. Tera wasn't terribly familiar with the history. All that mattered was that there would be no one keeping Carmine in check; they had met with a representative of what remained of the Corporation when they heard about the job and Carmine supposedly checked in with the man every once in awhile.

Tera sighed again, maybe it would be best to back off and leave the students to their own devices. Nah. It was selfish but she couldn't imagine just leaving Weiss to her own devices. She reminded her too much of herself. Tera left the infirmary and crept to the first year gym. The sound of laughter surprised her. The masked specialist couldn't help but smile as she cracked the door, watching Eurig and Ruby try to trip each other. She wasn't the only one who missed having friends.

* * *

"No, we have not gotten any closer to finding the target. I know, I know but Eurig has not been a member for years." Carmine rubbed the bridge of his nose as the representative prattled on.

"Yes, sir. I understand. I'll contact you in one month, yes." Carmine took a deep breathe and ran his nails down his left bicep, the fabric of his t-shirt held the grooves for a moment before straightening out. His scroll slid across the table as he flipped through random files. The hub was silent, Carmine liked it that way. He pushed the files away and checked his scroll, no new messages. He supposed that was a good thing. He thought about reading the files on the first year teams again but decided against it.

After Esme's last message the files held no interest. No, hearing that Eurig and Tera had gone to socialize with members of team RWBY had made Carmine restless. That combined with a surprise call from Command made focusing on the scribbles all but impossible. Instead, Carmine leaned back in his chair and thought.

The first thing on his mind was what to do with his traitorous subordinates. Killing them requesting replacements was always an option. Well, it would have been if the Order hadn't been nearly crippled since Carmine joined; it was wonder what four years and a trip to Dragnere could do. Killing Tera and Eurig would be satisfying but leave him short handed until command sent another squad to help, which could easily result in his squad permanently lacking two people. Until he found the target, then things would change but that would be easier if he had help. No, killing the traitors was out. As was crippling them and exiling them to the students, there was too much animosity towards his team as a whole for that to yield any favorable results. _I'll leave them alone for now, let them think they've pulled one over me_. Carmine sighed, life was simpler before the order left Dragnere, before it really mattered who he killed. _Suppose I'll be back to that soon enough._

 _Maybe sooner than I though_ t. A smile split his lips as two messages beeped over his scroll. Esme and Ozpin, he opened his subordinates first. A video greeted him, a shaking crate with bloody hand prints over the lid, _found it_. That was a perfect segue to Ozpin's request, _status report_. Carmine was in his office within five minutes.

"Please, take a seat mister Slate." Carmine sat before the elder man's desk.

"Thank you sir," he crossed his arms, "Is there anything particular you would like to know about the assignment?"

"Actually, I would like to know about your clashes with team RWBY." Carmine took a deep breath and struggled not to hiss it through his teeth.

"Just minor spats sir, they seem to believe my squad has some nefarious plan." Ozpin nodded and adjusted his glasses.

"Besides the fact that they are correct, that was why you were hired, I do not consider the near death of the Schnee heir to be part of a minor spat." The headmaster's eyes flashed behind his glasses.

"Sometimes I forget how, fragile, those in the south can be." Carmine met Ozpin's gaze. The sudden pressure behind his eyes did not intimidate him.

"I wouldn't underestimate my students, especially not miss Rose and her allies." Ozpin looked over his glasses at the specialist, "Push them far enough and you may find yourself fighting for your life."

Carmine smiled, "It's all part of the job." _It is my favorite part._

Ozpin gathered himself for a second, arguing with the specialist would get him nowhere.

"Speaking of the job, what progress have you made?"

"My squadmate's contacts proved to be useless which set us back, though I believe we may have just had a breakthrough." Carmine pulled out his scroll and showed the video to the headmaster. "The survival class has a field trip to the Forever Fall Forest Wednesday right? I think my squad tagging along may also yield...enlightening results."

Ozpin stared straight into his silver eyes. Blood and iron glared in their depths. The headmaster shook his head, Carmine nodded.

* * *

"You're sure you're fine to walk around?" Weiss smiled to herself as Ruby bolted on ahead. _Sure, she asks if I'm alright but still almost sprints everywhere._ If it got to be too hectic she could always let go of the redhead's hand, but where was the fun in that?

"I'm fine Ruby." Weiss smile widened as the younger girl beamed at her. They darted around Beacon's courtyard, finally disappearing into the academy's extensive garden. Blake didn't bother to follow them, the bountiful flowers bothered her nose. Plus, she'd gotten tired of following Ruby and Weiss. Though the two had grown close in their two weeks at Beacon, and downright separable since Weiss was injured the day before, they weren't a couple. Blake personally thought it was only a matter of time but could also understand the heiress' hesitance; if even half of the rumors from the White Fang were true, she had good reason to be afraid. Stier Schnee was not known for his accepting nature. Blake shrugged, it wasn't her business anyway. _Old habits die hard_.

Unlike a certain cat she knew, stalking was no longer one of her past times. That cat didn't seem to agree. He was why she was leaning against a wall just outside the courtyard, idly listening into whatever conversations she could. Eurig was late. Blake sighed, a claw tapped her shoulder. Blake reacted.

"Jumpy much?" Eurig grinned and released her hand, she almost swung again.

"You could have just walked over here, like a normal student." Though she glared at him, there was no real heat behind it.

"Then someone would notice us, sneaking up on you was fun too." He sat down and looked up at her, "I actually had to try."

"You're sure you're not just hiding your face?" Blake stayed standing.

"Well, that was a factor. Carmine would blow a circuit if students started thinking I was like them." They smirked at each other. The enigmatic specialist was why they were hiding instead of just talking in the courtyard or texting.

"What has your boss done that you had to call me?"

"It's not what he _has_ done, but what he _plans_ to do. And make me do." At her raised eyebrows, he continued, "He wants to raid a White Fang outpost and wants me to get us in." The lion tapped the wrapping over his ruined tattoo for emphasis.

"So how did they try and get rid of your mark? It looks like they used sand paper." That had bugged Blake since their sparring match.

"Good guess, industrial sander. Not pretty but it helps my cover, how do you hide your mark?" Blake raised an eyebrow at him, the lion grinned. "Forgot for a second, you were a spook-"

"Infiltration."

"-Spook. You all always scared me." It took Blake a moment to realize he was serious.

"Why would anyone in clean up be afraid of us-me? You all had the dangerous jobs." Eurig shook his head at her.

"We had the best jobs; get caught, get shot. Infiltrators, contacts in the peaceful cells, leaders, all of you were valuable. No one wanted to get promoted."

"You all were afraid you _wouldn't_ get killed if you got caught? We were all afraid of that." Adam had guaranteed that, everyone in the infiltration unit knew exactly what it felt like to have shards of lightning dust slipped between their vertebrae. Blake knew how effective several other torture techniques were from first hand experience, Adam had wanted her to be prepared for everything. He'd wanted her to be the best.

"No, I was afraid of you." Eurig's admission snapped Blake back to the present. His grin was gone. "I was afraid of how skilled, how much havoc you could cause when you worked with our leader, how easily you could kill."

Blake's face was grim as she nodded. She didn't like to think about her time in the White Fang and apparently neither did Eurig.

"Back to the issue at hand, how do you want to play this?" Blake chewed on her lip.

"When are you all attacking and what does Carmine want?" Eurig glanced up at her.

"Thursday, the outpost isn't too far from where Professor Peach is having her field trip. Carmine wants to hit it while all of the other teams collect sap or whatever, have me point out anyone important and then kill the rest. As for what he's looking for? I have no idea." The lion sighed as Blake stared at him. "Our mission isn't to stop the White Fang, we're looking for some cult chick. I don't know what Carmine thinks the White Fang have to do with this, and I would really like to keep too many more of the people I grew up with from getting slaughtered."

"Alright, I'll try and get away from my team, see if I can't look around first. Anything else?" Eurig pulled out his scroll and sent her a video. Blake's jaw set and her eyes widened as muted screams cried through her scroll. She muted it before turning to the standing specialist.

"Whatever you do, don't let Esme catch you." Blake glanced back at the courtyard and Eurig was gone. As she left the shadow and walked towards her dorm, Blake went to her scroll's messaging app. We need to talk, Blake typed the message but didn't send it. The three names seemed to glare at her from the translucent screen, _they don't know what you are. Do they need to?_ She deleted the message. It wasn't time, not yet. Really though, Blake had to ask, would it ever be?

* * *

 **Author's Note: Reviews are always welcome. If you find any errors, have any questions, or just want to comment on how the story is progressing, please feel free to PM me or write a review. I would really like to hear from anybody reading this, especially if you think I'm doing something wrong; that way I can fix it early.**


	7. Forever Fall

**Disclaimer: I own nothing involved with RWBY, that belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

Blake stared at her scroll again. Including her teammates in the plan would definitely make things easier for her in the short term. The long term effects of telling them she had been part of the White Fang, or even that she was working with Eurig because he used to be, would not be pretty. Weiss would undoubtedly call for her head at worst and her expulsion at best, or maybe it was the other way around. She doubted Yang would care she was part of the White Fang, but knew she would blow a gasket if she heard anyone for team SLTE was involved. After Carmine's taunts and his punishment of Weiss, even mentioning the armored team was enough to work her partner into a frenzy. Finally there was Ruby. Blake wasn't worried about the redhead, she was worried for her. While she could fight with the best of them and was one of the most accepting people Blake had ever met, the girl was woefully ignorant to the wider world; if Ruby reacted like she knew she would, there was a good chance her sister and partner would turn on her.

The panther stretched and sighed, her scroll slipped into her blazer pocket. There was no point missing breakfast fretting over tomorrow's plan. Her table was easy to find once she arrived in the cafeteria, how many other students wore bright red capes? She flashed a small smile at her teammates before scooping a bit of fruit salad onto her plate. That was a definite perk of being a student over a member of the White Fang, there was always food. Adam had not been above withholding rations if someone got out of line, a week of operations without food generally ended with the dissenter learning their lesson or dead. Adam couldn't have cared less which they ended up as, except her.

"So what took you so long Blakey?" Yang's voice brought her to the present. She smiled and tugged at the edge of her ribbon.

"Had to find this." The blonde nodded and went back to her conversation with Ren and Nora, something about a motorbike. Blake tuned them out and ate her breakfast. It didn't feel right not telling them.

That feeling followed her all through the day, all the way to professor Peach's class.

"Tomorrow you will all be taking a trip to Forever Fall to collect one jar of red sap each, Professor Goodwitch will be accompanying you due to increased sightings of Grimm." Blake sighed, more Grimm in the area meant there was a good chance SLTE's strike on the outpost would draw them towards the students. A horde of Grimm against twelve students and professor would not end well.

"Why are we collecting sap?" Blake jumped at Ruby's question. She scolded herself, now was not the time to zone out. Professor Peach raised a piece of paper off her desk, the guide they had been given on the field trip.

"I can see someone did not read the overview." The young girl blushed and shrank down a bit, Blake thought it was a bit petty to scold a girl two years younger than everyone else for not reading a piece of paper. Yang and Weiss seemed to share her sentiment, they bristled on either side of their leader. "Would anyone like to remind miss Rose of the sap's properties?"

"Forever Fall sap is known for its aura conductivity, which makes it a powerful healing agent." Everyone is the class turned to the door, two black visors stared back. _How do they do that?_ Blake narrowed her eyes at Carmine and Esme, it had to be the quiet girl's semblance. Just what was it though? Active camouflage? Blind spot exploitation? She had been trying to figure it out since Eurig asked to meet her, he had been very specific on which area of the campus they met, no doubt to avoid his ever watching teammates. "Any other questions professor?"

"I wasn't aware your team would be attending mister Slate." Peach was wary of the black armored students, even from her very limited contact with them she could tell there was something deeply wrong with the quartet.

"We will not, that is what I dropped by to inform you. My team will be remaining on school grounds while our peers take part in your field trip. Ozpin wanted to make sure you were informed, in case you required us for anything." Blake held back a snort. That was actually a very astute move; Carmine knew for a fact the professor was disturbed by his group and wouldn't call on them, and he had just given the entire first year class his alibi for if anything happened. Sometimes Blake missed being on the dark side, there were definite perks to being able to guilelessly lie to everyone. Instead she was stuck trying to decide whether or not to tell her new friends she had been a terrorist before holding back got someone hurt. She sighed and leaned back in her chair as Peach dismissed the members of SLTE. She knew she would tell her team. _Before or after?_ That was the real question.

By lunch, Blake was leaning heavily towards telling her team. The threat of a Grimm attack was too high for her to let them go in blind on good conscious, especially if she was likely to be near the flash point. That was another thing, she needed to talk to Eurig on their plan of attack. On Monday they had narrowed it down to either her sneaking in before SLTE arrived or sneaking in and following him. Eurig hadn't contacted her since then and Blake felt it wasn't because he thought their plan was airtight.

That was why when he sent: _Meet me on the roof. Now._ Blake immediately stood up from the table. Middle of lunch or no, she had to meet with him if something was wrong. Her partner seemed to have a different opinion.

"Where're you going?" Yang looked at her, Weiss and Ruby slowed their conversation.

"It's-I'll meet up with you all before class." She started to hurry away but turned back, "um...we also all need to talk tonight. There's something you all need to know."

She was gone before any of them could stop her or ask what she meant. Her feet pounded against the tiled floor, a shade launched her up the stairwell. She slowed as she neared the door, but just threw it open anyway. Gambol Shroud was in her locker, if the message was a trick and the rest of team SLTE were waiting for her even her weapon wouldn't do her much good. Eurig was alone against the spire.

"Hey kit-kat." Eurig raised a hand and almost immediately lowered it. Blake scowled.

"Why did you text me?" She walked to stand in front of him. The lion looked at his feet.

"There's been a change in Carmine's plan." Eurig took off his helmet, it clattered onto the stone. "His exact words were 'it is time you live up to your namesake'."

"What are you all called?" The lion kept his eyes down. Blake bent to look into his eyes, he jerked his head to the side.

"Rezak lzhets." Blake watched the lion's hands curl into fists.

"What?" She kept her eyes on his hands, they trembled slightly. He didn't seem upset though.

"Rezak Izhets, some Northern gidderish. I think it means honest blade or something."

"Carmine's from Atlas?" The words didn't sound Atlesian, but Blake was far from an expert on the language. Maybe she could discreetly ask Weiss what it meant.

"No, hell no. He's from Hardhome, way up in the wings of Drakon." Blake paled, that kingdom had fallen long before the Great War. There were very few settlements known to the kingdoms and even fewer willing to communicate, how had Carmine gotten this far south? Who had brought him? More important were the rumors Blake had heard, why the White Fang hadn't tried to garner support in the defunct kingdom. It was supposedly a haven cultists and witches, blood orgies and ransacking, coasts stocked with reavers and interior plagued by horrors even a faunus could not avoid. It was hell on Remnant.

"How-"

"No idea. Carmine has never been forthcoming about his past and asking rarely turned out well." Eurig's hand traced the twisted scar on his jaw, "I can't let him tear apart my friends again."

"Then what's our plan? What's his change?" Blake reached out and ran her fingers over it, the flesh was cooler than it should have been and that around it was too hot. Eurig turned away from her, the tips of her fingers lingered on his neck for a moment.

"He wants to kill them all."

"How is that different than before?" Eurig stood and raked his hands over his flattened ears, his anxiety had returned.

"It's not-it's just...just. You need to stay away." Blake was at his throat in a second.

"We need to do this. If I can't look for whatever and warn the outpost, then-"

"Carmine will cut down every one of them and make me help." Eurig met her eyes.

"And if I find whatever it is first th-" His eyes were red rimmed and shrouded by dark circles as he shook his head.

"Carmine will cut down every one of them, make me help, and send Esme to put you in a box." Gold bored into amber. "If you go, you will die."

"Why did you even ask me for help? I've been worrying about this all week." she huffed at him. His fingernails scratched over the back of his neck and jaw, his hand twitched.

"I-I didn't mean for-" his nails dug into his forearms next, "Carmine thinks I'm planning something. I think he has Esme following me and Tera."

Blake grabbed his wrist, he whined against the itch but surrendered his arm. She rubbed away the make up in the crook of his elbow, the flesh was bruised and veins stained but the needle marks were days old. Eurig smirked as she frowned, his eyes lacked their usual playful glint. "He took away your stash."

"Yea...won't give it back until we have whatever he wants from the outpost." She could see the shame in his eyes and in the slight waver in his voice. "I can't go longer than that." He raised her hand to his forehead. The fever was low but noticeable. The panther set her jaw.

Blake knew he was telling the truth. The stimulant cocktail the White Fang handed out to infiltrators and their clean up crews was potent; it enhanced aura regeneration, strengthened muscles to an extent, could keep the user going for ten days straight with regular doses, and was incredibly addictive. The withdraw was agonizing, as the drug had to purge itself both from the user's body and aura; it would feel like insects were crawling under their skin, fever and nausea would render them unable to move, every nerve would burn as the aura became self sufficient again. Quitting cold turkey was akin to suicide. It took over a week for the symptoms to fully develop and another two for the poison to work its way fully out of the body. Blake had only survived after she ran away because a family of farmers had taken pity on the shivering faunus who collapsed in their barn's loft, even then it had taken over a month for her to fully recover. She doubted Carmine would be as kind to his subordinate. Blake nodded, I understand. She did not like the idea of trading an outpost full of faunus for drugs but also did not like the idea of watching her only co-conspirator die.

The lion collected his helmet and fled across the rooftops. Blake leaned against the spire. It looked like she had some explaining to do. _Well, shit._

* * *

Ruby Rose was worried about her teammate. Their resident faunus had been acting quite odd lately; she disappeared at random times, always seemed tense, and had ominously informed them that she had to tell them all something yet refused to follow through. Ruby hadn't let it go, she had hounded the panther all the previous day and well into the bullhead ride to Forever Fall. The second they landed though the panther sprinted off, and Ruby knew better than to try and use her semblance in a dense forest.

Still, she couldn't stop wondering what was wrong with Blake as she retreated back to Weiss and Yang. Her sister shrugged and handed her an empty jar, while she wasn't happy about Blake's refusal to speak she had learned to not push her partner.

"Come on, we need to fill our jars fast. Pyrrha wants our help with something." Weiss didn't wait for the sisters to answer before marching over to a tree and attempting to attach the one of the spigots professor Peach had given to them before they left. However, the bark of the tree proved to be much thicker than than she expected; it took her pressing on the spout with both hands and leaning what little weight she could onto it to reach the sapwood. She was forced to immediately hop backwards, as the wine colored liquid flowed through the spigot. A giggle had her looking at her teammates.

Ruby had gone bright red and had both hands clasped over her mouth, obviously smiling at her partner's struggle. Yang didn't even try to hide her enjoyment, she just laughed and effortlessly jabbed her own spigot into the tree. She of course also had the good sense to have her jar ready for the sap. Weiss grinned to herself and turned back to the tree. They filled two jars each before turning their spigots, or letting Yang turn their spigots, and marking the trees for future collection.

"So..what's Pyrrha want?" Ruby apologetically smiled at Weiss as she packed away all of their jars, there were two empty spaces for Blake's jars in the satchel.

"Something about Jaune and Cardin." Yang's eyes lit up at the heiress's statement.

"Let's get going then, no reason to waste time." The white and red pair shared a look but followed the brawler anyway.

From her perch in a nearby tree, Blake tracked them. Her heart ached a bit at the fragments of their conversation she caught. They were having a nice normal day and she was putting them in danger. She shook her head and scanned the treeline to the east. There had been an odd shimmer when she first looked but it faded almost immediately, she sighed and leaned against the unnaturally pale tree trunk. Maybe she was just being paranoid. Maybe her last visit to Forever Fall had warped her perception of the place. A scream had her jumping through the treetops, paranoid or not there was still a horde of Grimm and a death squad prowling about.

What Blake saw however, made Blake slam her palm into her forehead. In the clearing below her, Cardin held Jaune up by his throat. The rest of team CRDL ran in circles with rapier wasps swarming over them. She was tempted to jump down as the bully pulled back his fist but stayed her hand. She could see Pyrrha, Yang, Ruby, and Weiss hidden in the treeline; if things got out of hand they could take care of it. Hell, she bet one of them had planned part of this. Blake settled in to see how this ended.

The entire forest shook as Cardin slammed his fist into Jaune's face, a flash and the boy was released. Everyone Blake could see looked dumbfounded, Cardin was especially puzzled by the fresh bruise on his own cheek. The forest shook again, and Blake instinctively looked to the East. A pillar of black had risen and her stomach dropped. What had Carmine done?

Her wondering was cut short by a roar, an Ursa Major was bounding towards the defenseless Jaune and Cardin. A dozen howls sounded to the West. Blake jumped out of the tree and sprinted towards her team. Red eyes glowed all along the dark edges of the clearing.

Tera adjusted her grip on her light machine gun. Laying in a bramble patch was not the most comfortable position for her to fire from, but gave her an excellent view of Eurig and the center of the outpost. She kept her sights trained on the White Fang members crowded around her squad mate, Eurig stayed still on the ground. For a second Tera wondered if he was alright, but knew he wasn't and that Carmine didn't care. Since Carmine had Esme and her ignorance field and dozens of high explosive daggers, his opinion was the only one that mattered. His current opinion was to take the dozens of daggers, thread them with aura conductive wire, and plant them around the perimeter of the outpost. Her earpiece crackled.

"Everything's rigged, you have the stragglers?" Tera aimed a smidge higher.

"Yes, but they're just standing around Eurig."

"Acceptable, fire on my mark." She pressed herself further into the brush, a shimmer passed over the camp. Her finger depressed the match trigger. The outpost's many tents simultaneously detonated.

The terrorists in the center of camp were mowed down in seconds, Eurig stayed curled up in the dirt. Pillars of ice and balls of fire encircled the faunus as the rest of his team's weapons went off. A few seconds later and it was over, the only sounds in the camp being the low crackle of stubborn fires and the groans of those few unlucky enough to survive. Tera helped the lion up.

He leaned into her as their leader sauntered over, his condition had worsened. It was a wonder Eurig could stand at all. Tera led him to a mostly intact tent before joining Carmine in his hunt for survivors. They lined everyone they found up in front of Esme.

"Ready?" The masked Northerner grabbed one of the younger looking White Fang and made him kneel before his beaten comrades. Tera knelt in front of the boy and activated her semblance.

"When are you moving the package?" Fear glowed in the boy's eyes, Tera smiled at him. It was kind, promising no more pain.

"I-I don't...I don't know." _Liar_. There was too much green at the edges of his face, too much anxiety and fear for that to be the truth.

"Come on, when is it?" Her smile did not change, his eyes hardened. Tera knew he would lie again and she almost felt bad for the poor bastard.

"I don't know." His voice was steady but the coloring did not fade, Tera blinked. The colors blew away from his face and her smile fell. She didn't need to use her semblance to see pure terror overtake him.

"He's lying to us." Carmine drew his billhook and traded places with Tera.

"Cover his mouth," the terrorist struggled but her gloved hand sealed his jaws, "you will tell me where your little club is keeping all the dust."

The machete's hook traced the restrained boy's ribs, Carmine flicked his wrist. The White Fang member screamed into Tera's glove as a gash opened across his pectoral, he screamed louder as Carmine's thumb dug into the torn flesh. The specialist probed deeper, splitting the skin until he could curl a finger around a rib. The faunus looked ready to pass out, Carmine channeled aura into him to stave off unconsciousness.

"You'll tell me, but first I'm going to teach you a lesson," the specialist leaned forward, resting his knee between the captive's legs and aligning his mask's speaker with his ear. The billhook's hook looped around the boy's hand. "Don't ever, ever, lie to me." _Shlick_.

Tera held the boy still as the torture continued. She didn't make a sound as her leader systematically tore the boy apart. She just stared dead eyed behind her mask, a sickening mix of black and purple bleeding through the monster's.

By the time he was done, the entire camp was bathed in sickly green wisps of fear. Carmine sighed as the butchered boy told him what he wanted and he slit his throat. A dozen cracks of Esme's rifle and they were the only four living beings in the outpost. Eurig shook, whether from anger, fear, or withdraw Tera could not tell.

"Alright, grab anything that looks valuable." the specialist cocked his head towards the lone faunus. "Get whatever you need Eurig, I'm sure these men won't mind."

A shard of fear settled in Tera's chest as they looted the newly desolate outpost. The wisps of fear had drifted with the wind, an invisible cloud pointing towards the Beacon students. The fear stayed with her as they prepared to leave and she looked over the treetops. A black mist had formed in the west, and it was getting closer. Tera could do nothing but set her jaw and help Eurig stagger back towards their bullhead. She hated her job.

* * *

The Ursa Major had only been the beginning of the Grimm onslaught. Pyrrha had managed to regroup with Jaune but Ren and Nora were unaccounted for. Ruby silently prayed they were alright as she reloaded Crescent Rose for the third time, she backed up a bit. A trio of beowolves immediately charged after her, she fired and cleaved through them. A boarbattusk forced her to pivot and a burst of feathers kept her from killing the creature.

"Blake!" The faunus dove out of the way using a shade before sweeping her cleaver under it's hooves, a single stab ended its squealing. Ruby and Blake were quick to return to their previous positions. That was what the box formation depended upon, everyone staying in position and quickly returning to their corner if they were forced to move. If held properly, it allowed a team of huntsmen to effectively deal with threats from all directions and limitedly cover each other. Team RWBY had managed to hold it together for nearly twenty minutes, though the waves of Grimm had steadily grown and the boarbatusk's charge was not the first thing to throw two of them out of formation.

Ruby carved through a few more young Grimm as they rushed her, she could hear fire crackling from Weiss' strike to her left and the steady detonations of Ember Celica's rounds to her right. A line of feathers forced her back again, she tracked a blur to her right. The ten foot tall Nevermore was headed for her sister.

"Yang, Nevermore in the woods." she hoped her sister heard her over the explosions. Ruby didn't have another chance to warn her sister either, the beowolves had gotten bold and were testing her reach with Crescent Rose. Similarly, the Nevermore seemed to be testing just how close it could get without Yang striking it. A dozen jabs, and flare rounds, had the Grimm hopping from tree to tree but its launched feathers kept Yang from getting a clear shot. As one of the dagger like projectiles sailed towards her head, Yang wove under it and fired two rounds into the ground behind her. _The best defense was a good offense_ , a smirk lit up her red eyes. She cocked back her fist as she soared towards the bird.

What the brawler had not expected was for the Nevermore to use the same trick, ducking its beak under her arm and flaring its wings out. The blow barely dropped her aura but managed to knock her back to the earth, she threw a cross at the unbalanced Grimm. A beowolf, claws batting her arm away from the avian. Instead of blasting the targeted Grimm into cinders, Ember Celica's round embedded at her feet and flipped her into a tree. She rebounded off the trunk and caved in a beowolf's chest in retaliation. The flaming haired brawler was kept out of place as an alpha beowolf and a dozen of its pack decided to gang up on the isolated huntress-in-training.

With Yang no longer covering her corner, the young Nevermore launched another barrage of feathers. Turning, Ruby spun Crescent Rose to deflect as many of the dagger sized feathers as she could. A howl behind her divided her attention, more feathers rushed through the gap as the beowolf charged. If she dodged the formation would collapse and divide her team, if she didn't her semblance would burn through what little aura she had left. _I'm always faster_ , she couldn't risk her team by dodging. Ruby fired her scythe and whirled on the looming Grimm, it fell in two pieces; just as she pivoted the scythe wielder faltered. Something hit her back, she stumbled forward a step. A cough forced its way up her throat, flecks of blood spattered over her scythe's raised haft. For a second she was confused, then she tried to take a deep breath. Crescent Rose clattered to the ground.

Ruby fell back gasping and hacking, blood dribbled past her lips. Her lung burned as air flowed into the pierced organ, another cough stained the grass with her blood. She tried to breathe to calm herself. Her mouth filled with coppery liquid as she managed to take a breath and immediately began choking.

Panicked hands clutched at her chest, she looked down. Just below her breasts, jutting a foot out of her, was the quill of a feather. Thin fingers tightened around the spike, the shaking of her hands shifted it slightly. Ruby's vision blurred from the pain, a gurgling scream tore out of her but she did not let go. Her lips had started to turn blue.

Desperate for air, Ruby tightened her grip as much as she could. _Get it out and get air. Get it out and get air_ , that chant was all that kept her concious against the pain. The quill was slick with her blood and perfectly smooth. She yanked on it and only ended up blacking out for a few seconds, she could feel barbs wiggle inside her back. Feel them scrape against her ribs and tear the muscles so close to her spine. A coughing fit kept her from trying again, more blood came up than before.

The thick fluid covered her hands as she pulled again, angling the bards over instead of straight out. Ruby managed to take a tiny gulp of air, still more blood poured from her side. A soft growl flitted over the edge of her mind, Ruby's hands slipped. Her eyes lolled back; a dark shape, a flash of red and gold.

Pyrrha stared down at her. The redhead froze, blood covered Ruby from her mouth to her hips. The champion's eyes locked on the feather speared through her and the fragile hands wrapped around it. Then Ruby tried to pull it through again and Pyrrha was yelling at her.

"No, no, no." Unfocused silver eyes jerked to her, not comprehending her panicked warning. Pyrrha unwound Ruby's fingers from the spike, it was sickeningly easy. She was too weak, she'd lost too much blood. _She's going to die_ , Pyrrha didn't know what to do. A gurgle brought her attention to the little girl's face. Blood bubbled and flowed from her mouth, she was trying to talk. "Don't talk. Don't try to talk, just-just stay still." Whether Ruby understood her or didn't have enough air for another attempt, Pyrrha didn't know.

The scythe wielder curled as her body tried to clear her left lung, hacking coughs brought back the agony. If she took tiny breaths, gasps really, she could get a bit of air into her ignored the cold sensation settling in her side. She wasn't drowning in her own blood anymore, though her lips retained their bluish hue.

Ruby reached out to her protector, trying to tell her it was alright. She could breathe a little. Her fingers wouldn't unfold right, just twitch and slightly curl. Her savior took her hand in both of her own, the warmth distracted Ruby. A dull cracking had both of them glancing back.

Suddenly Ren was beside Pyrrha. They whispered something at each other, it was too quiet for Ruby to hear. She blinked, when she opened her eyes Ren was knelt next to her with his hands over the feather. Magenta light poured from his hands into the wound, Ruby couldn't feel it anymore. Ren smiled as he noticed her eyes were open, sweat dripped from his forehead. His lips moved but no sound came out. It was cold on the ground. _I should have brought my coat_. Ruby tried to shift around, pull her cloak tighter around herself but strong hands stopped her. She looked back at Ren; the hands didn't loosen and she couldn't see Pyrrha

He kept mouthing things to her but she couldn't focus on him enough to figure out what it was. Her attention was set on the shivering feeling all over her, it had gotten colder and she felt like she need to shiver. She couldn't though, her muscles wouldn't move enough; Ren seemed to get paler as her grip loosened and her hand went limp. Ruby's vision blurred, and it didn't fade back into focus like before. Black encroached on the edges.

 _Am I dying?_ The thought didn't scare her, she didn't even react to it. The cold was all she could focus on. It and the need to shiver had gotten worse, and only continued to as her vision completely faded. She couldn't hear at all either and even the cold began to recede. Everything was dark and numb and calm, then a tiny voice whispered in the back of her head. One, barely audible phrase. Ruby was suddenly very afraid, very cold and afraid.

"Ruby! Where's my...sister," Yang froze behind Ren. The Vacan didn't even attempt to acknowledge her, all he could to by that point was struggle to channel what little aura he had left. Pyrrha started towards the blonde, trying to stir her stare from Ruby's half open eyes. She shoved her back and sank down beside Ren, her hands settled over his. Golden light spilled over the wound, Yang couldn't tell if her sister was breathing. She forced more of her power through her hands, nothing changed. Someone started sobbing behind her, someone else gasped; Yang ignored them. Ren collapsed but she didn't pay him any mind. Her vision faded but she did not move her hands. The last thing Yang heard before unconsciousness claimed her was a cough, a weak and rattling cough.

* * *

Blake stared at her blood soaked leader and the professor keeping her alive as the bullhead lifted off the forest floor. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Yang and Ren propped in their seats, unconscious. Her eyes flickered over the, now snapped, feather through her teammate. Through her friend. Goodwitch hadn't been able to safely extract it and was instead knelt beside her using her semblance to keep her blood flowing around the shard. Cardin and one of his teammates were also laid out on the floor, though neither of them would require surgery when they landed. Blake tightened her arms across her chest and choked back her emotions. A warmth shifted beside her. Blake glanced over.

Weiss was curled into her side, asleep. Exhaustion had thankfully caught up with her, Blake wished she was that lucky. She was tired but refused to close her eyes; no, she kept her eyes on Ruby and her shallow breaths. She had done this. It was her fault. To Blake it was all her fault and she couldn't hurt her team like this again. She wouldn't hurt them again. If she was gone, they wouldn't be hurt. Right?

 _Right?_

* * *

 **Author's Note: Sorry, this was a day late. As always reviews are welcome. If you find any errors, have any questions, or just want to comment on how the story is progressing, please feel free to PM me or write a review. I would really like to hear from anybody reading this, especially if you think I'm doing something wrong; that way I can fix it early.**


End file.
